Intertwined
by James Parry
Summary: Summary: Intertwined is you're fate and mine. what if Bellamy had not been the only one to stow away on the the drop ship that sent the 100 to earth? What if he had a partner in crime who went with him? What if she was the key to truly uniting the 100 and the grounders. And melting a certian Commander's icy heart.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Intertwined is you're fate and mine.

Summary: what if Bellamy had not been the only one to stow away on the the drop ship that sent the 100 to earth? What if he had a partner in crime who went with him? What if she was the key to truly uniting the 100 and the grounders. And melting a certian Commander's icy heart.

Warning: This is not going to be one of happy fluffy RomCom story's, or at least not in the beginning. Beware of angst, mentions of abuse and death.

Disclaimer: If I owned it…..well let's just say that there would be no words to describe what I would do with it. But, here is a glimpse, for all of you who decide to read.

**Previously. **

_Clarke steps back and Finn's head falls, achingly slow, lifelessly of her shoulder, but the wait of it remains. Heavy and crippling and Clark wants to fall to her knees. _

_She was frozen on the outside, but inside she was screaming, wailing in denial, clawing at her own mind, screaming for a salvation that would never come, for how could she ever be absolved for this, for this huge, dspipicable act?_

_How could she ever justify to herself murdering her first love._

_She has just killed Finn. She feels like she's drowning, drowning in a see of blood. Finn's blood, as it pools around their feet._

_In reality the bloody knife that drooped from Clark's hand barley made a sound as it sunk into the ground. But in her mind the clanking sound vibrated through the open air like a scream. Like Raven's screams from inside the camp._

_Clarke freezes only a single tear falls from one of her glassed over unseeing eyes. To Clarke, the world has completely obliterated. She can't think, she can't see, and she can't believe what she has just done. _

_There is roar as several grounders begin to move forward to attack her with their drawn swords, spears and bows. _

_Clarke still can't find it in her to move as she watches them with dull lifeless blue eyes, which are the haunted echo of the dead boy behind her. _

_"N00!"_

_Something inside Clarke broke._

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_"__ I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream  
I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam  
And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem  
But if I know you, I know what you'll do  
You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream__."_

**Chapter 1: Once Upon A Dream. **

Far away from Camp Jaha and the tragedy that had befallen one of there own, in the midst of an unknown forest.

A girl with flaming golden red hair and green eyes gazed at the stars, and the stars gazed back down at her troubled face.

Unknown to all, but one, she like Bellamy Blake had been an additional member of 100 juvenile prisoners sent down to the ground from a gigantic orbital space station known only as 'The Ark'.

She was Aedan Cale, the orphaned daughter of the famed Captain of the Guard Jonathan Cale and council woman Bianca Cale of the Ark.

Aedan is laying on the tree trunk of the highest tree looking up at night sky, the stars above her doing their best to outshine the grounder fires of the makeshift camp they set up for rest tonight. She knows she'll have to head back there soon, or Berdine will wake up and worry that the Mountain Men have abducted their new leader.

But, Aedan had a lot on her mind. In just a few days she would be meeting the grounders legendary Commander, their Heda.

And while that might have been reason enough to have kept her awake, in worry that this mysterious commander might not only kill her, but also the people she had come call her own. Because they had not only allowed her, an outsider, one of the sky people to become a part of their clan, but also chosen her as their leader. Yet, this was not the reason she had woken up from a dream that had her gasping for air.

No, it had been the voice. The voice, that once upon a time, had been a constant companion in her dreams of earth, for as long as she could remember. But for the last two years on the Ark had fallen silent. Aedan had thought forever.

On the Ark when these dreams happened Aedan would hack the security of the highest most secluded part of the ship and She'd lay back and watch the stars surrounding earth, feeling a twinge in her heart that tells her that down there is where she really belongs, not up here, in the stupid tin can of a ship that has held her prisoner her whole life when all she wants to do is float away. And maybe a secret hopeful, naive part of her had dreamed that somewhere down there, somehow, her father had survived his death by earth and could be found, if only she just could make it there to. It had been the wishful thinking of child; she had know the truth of it all. Her supposed guardian never let her forget that she was alone. Beat it into her actually.

Aedan sighs and rolls her head over onto her side away from the stars as tears slip from her eyes, as painful memory, after painful memory slams into her mind. The wind picks up a little and plays with the long waves of her amber red hair, sometimes pushing it over her wet cheeks and towards the corner of her eyes like a golden curtain.

Aedan had been no more than four years old when her world went to hell and life became so much more for her than it ever should have been for a child her age.

She can recall with crystal clarity the moment when her once happy life took a turn for the worse.

Her mother had walked in on her dad reading to her from one of the books that held their favourite bedtime stories and she had smiled, but it was not the same smile she always had when she saw them, the one that was so beautiful, so bright, so full of love. The one she had on her face that day, was one Aedan would later imitate after she learned just how wrong and fake it was. Her voice sounded strangled and her face pale as she whispered her fathers name.

Flash

_"John"_

_Hearing terrified tone on his wife voice John head snapped up from the book he had been reading to their daughter and frowned as he really looked at her. Her gaze was weary, tired and very, very afraid. "Bianca?.. Bianca? What is it? What's wrong" His eyes scanning her from head to toe, as he searched for any sign of the source of his wife's fear._

_Her mouth shrugged and moved with the struggle to speak. She had something important to say, John could tell. His worry grew with the continuing silence. What could have happened to cause his impossibly brave smart mouthed wife to loose her voice._

_For as long as he had known her, she never had any trouble with words, would say what she wanted to when she wanted too and no force in this world could stop her._

_He reached out and took her hands in his, to assure her that whatever seemed to be bothering her would be something that they both handled equally._

_The tension between his shoulders thickens however when she buries her head in his chest and burst into tears, refusing to look him in the eyes. "I'm so sorry John, so sorry, I don't know ... how this happened, I... There's something that I have to tell you. But…" she hesitates once more._

_"Bianca what has happen? You know can tell me anything," John says softly._

_Bianca exhales tearfully "Please don't be angry with me,John, I honestly don't know how this happened, the contraceptive given to me after Aedan's birth should have made this impossible " she whispers._

_John frowns, heavily confused. Before everything suddenly clicks into place. He pales. An unpleasant sensation churns in his gut, and he fights instinct. "Are you…are you pregnant -Is that what you are trying to tell me ?" John asks as he tries to swallows the lump that starts to form in his throat._

_Bianca blinks up at him shakily, and then nods. She takes a deep breath and says, "I just found out …John I don't know what to do."_

_John sighs and runs a shake hand through his amber red hair. "God Bianca..." he says ."This isn't good, you, more then anyone, know it's against the law ...,and the fact that were both figures who are supposed to enforce and uphold the laws, not break them, will only make our punishment harsher, will both be sent to earth to die along with our unborn child. God only knows what will happen to Aedan. " he pauses and tries to control the shudder of fear that tries to overtaken him. He has to stay calm, and he can't do that if he thinks about the punishment handed out to those who attempted to have have more then one child. "Do you know how far along you are? Can it be prevented with a simple morning after pill?...or-"_

_Bianca winces, but doesn't try for a fight. She knows he's right. She doesn't say anything. Then, she does. "No, it's to far along for that. Almost two months."_

_John blinks. Struck speechless … "You're two mouths..."_

_Bianca can't do nothing but nod. "I thought the morning sickness was a side effect to the medication I've been taking for my seizures John! The Doctor said it would be, so I din't think twice about it. And I didn't notice that I skipped my period last month because Aedan had fallen I'll and -"_

_"Ok, ok, calm down sweetheart, everything will be ok" he cupped her face his hands and he tried his best reassure her, even though they both knew it wouldn't be" we just have to figure out what to do, for Aedan sake. What do you want to do about this? We can't keep the baby you do know that don't you?" John watches her nod, as more tears fall from her beautiful wild green eyes and wipes them away with the pads of his fingers. Felling like he wanted to cry himself as continued" We can't get rid of it either,not without someone finding out. So you will have give him or her up. There are stillborn babies being born all the time. When he or she is born will replace them with one of the stillborns. Our baby will get to live and another couple will raise our child as there own. This means we will have to keep you out of everyone's sight, tell others your seizures have gotten worse, you'll have to give up your seat on the council can't have anyone finding out."_

_"Whatever you want," she says quickly, like she's trying to make up for this . He doesn't like it when she does that. Takes the blame onto herself without putting up a fight._

_"I'm not angry Bianca. I'm just petrified of loosing you and Aedan. And I know I will if were found out. And I want to make it clear that this is in no way your fault. If there is blame to placed then it's on me ok?" he ask, pressing back the pain of loss already starting to creep up on him for another time, focusing on the now. "If this works, I know it will be hard to watch our child being raised by others. But will get through it together, you and me. Like we always have."_

_Bianca stares at him and replies, "Why are you so good to me? Why are you so…even after all I'm about to put you through, after all I put you through with my illness …you just, you're willing to risk everything for me?"_

_"Guess I have this weird notion where love is supposed to be everlasting. Good times and bad. In sickness and health" he teases weakly but with conviction "Your illness if not you're fault Bi, and I love you. I don't blame you at all for you're illness, how many times must I tell you that's ridicules, how could I? What's the sense of it? It's a curse of the Cales I think, to love unconditionally. Our little girl's gonna get it as bad as me, just you wait and see." John shrugs like it's a fact. "Love you," he repeats, blue eyes full of it._

_"Love you," Bianca echoes, a little bit of wonderment in her voice._

_Six months later_

_Little Aedan is startled when a cadet, her daddy calls her uncle Marciss, bursts in the room, looking wide eyed and frightened._

_"John!" the cadet shouts._

_Aedan sees her daddy run from her mummy's room instantly "Marcus? What is it? what's wrong?"_

_"It's...it's Diana, she's found out about Bianca's pregnancy! She's on her way here John, you need to take Bianca and hide her somewhere !" And then he is followed by lots of other guards who are led into there quarters by a women with blond hair and cold blue eyes that stare at Aedan with a sadististc gleam._

_" I'm sorry to have to do this John, but you and your wife are under arrest" The blonde says face full of fake sympathy._

_"Save you're bullshit for someone who will actually be stupid enough to believe you Diana! I know you too well." Her daddy growls at the scary woman._

_"John," Bianca says hastily. She appeared in the bedroom doorway looking pale and the white of her sleeping gown tainted in blood._

_"Seize her!"Diana Commands her guards._

_Aedan watches as the men move on the women's orders and her father struggle helpless to stop them and Aedan is getting more and more afraid._

_"Take her to Med bay , once she gives birth put her in holding until I get there".The men move hastily to obey dragging her mother away" Take the former Captain to the spare drop ships to receiv his sentencing."_

_"Daddy?," Aedan whimpers tearfully afraid. "Don't go. Please. Daddy don't go."_

_Aedan tries to run past the guards to her father, but, one of them grips her arm hard and pulls her back so harshly that Aedan can't help but cry out._

_"Take you fucking hands of my daughter right now!." Her daddy Growls at the guard with such burning fury in eyes, that the guards instantly let's go of Aedan as if burned by her fathers gaze who turns to Aedan and kneels down so there at eye level "Do not be afraid my little angel. I need you to be brave, I need you to brave for me and your mummy ok? Will you do that for me angel ?"_

_Aedan nods and try's not to cry anymore._

_"That's my brave girl" John praises, kisses her temple and pulls his daughter in his arms for what he knows is the last time " daddy loves you."_

_"Love you too daddy"Aedan mumbles Into his chest, griping tightly at her daddy's shirt when the big men in black began to pull him away._

_"Aedan…"her daddy says and pats at the little hand that's gripping him tightly. Aedan gets it. Aedan's emotionally astute even at this age and she gets it just by the sound of her name coming out of Daddy's mouth, she gets it like her mummy would get it._

_"M'don't want to." Two tears streak down the side of the kid's face again._

_John reaches a hand in, trails a finger down the stream, and whispers, "I know. I know, but you gotta , you gotta baby, let go …"_

_Aedan nods and it's less than a second before her father is jerked away her, herded out of their quarters and into the hall and put of her sight for what she doesn't realise at the time, forever._

_Aedan waits. Does nothing but wait because that's all she can do. Except try and be brave like her daddy told her to be. Six hours later and she's still waiting, refusing to move when, others try to make her, she just hopes her mom and dad will come back soon and grace her with big smiles, warm hugs that will make feel safe again._

End Of Flash

They don't come back.

And in the morning Diana Sydney walks into her home once again, and informs her that her father was condemned to death by earth and her mother and unborn brother died during labor.

She was alone now. Alone and scared.

Something in Aedan breaks and all that she can hear is that her parents are dead…dead…dead and never coming back. Aedan snaps. A feral create made of furies flames burst to life inside of her. She doesn't know what she is screaming. But the next thing She knows the bitch hits her and her thoughts fuzz out as her head hits the counter and all she can see is that vicious bitch who took her parents from her staring at Aedan with cold blue eyes as the black closes in around the edges.

Later when she comes to on the living room floor, her hair matted down with blood and sweat, it is to the sounds of laughter and voices in the background, to the sight of a dark skinned woman who calls herself Nigel telling her that Aedan's home has now become hers and strange men trashing her mothers things and it's obvious this person will not care about her cause she left Aedan there in full sight bleeding on the floor and is sitting in the chair her father had been only a day ago, her feet on the table calmly watching a holo-vid as her men worked around her.

Aedan claws her way to her feet and stumbles to the bathroom, taking in the sight of her very first black eye and split lip and gets to work on her wounds, she stoping only for a second and try's to remember what her mother did the last time Aedan was hurt. The memory had hurt so she had pushed away as quickly as her photographic memory had recalled it, took a peace of cloth and a little bit of water from the bottle in her room and starts to wipe away at the wound, it stings and burns but the blood comes off and after some more crying she looks up head wounds on her data pad and sets the alarm for every two hours because she isn't stupid and she knows the blood in her hair is a bad sign and though she wants to die, a part of her that has become a flaming inferno wants to live and make the woman who took her parents away from her pay first, she lays in her bed and can not ignore the throbbing in her face or the voice that whispers in the back of her mind that tells her this is only the beginning. Aedan closes her eyes and despite her wish for retribution, she wishes with all her heart that she will never wake up again.

Two years later Aedan is six years old and on the aneversery of her parents death Aedan finds herself waking up, hurt and bleeding on that same floor, after Nigel gives a her particularly harsh beating, because Aedan talks when she's not supposed, talks back when she when she knows better then too. But this day makes her reckless and she doesn't back down before Nigel's big furies fists despite knowing it will result in her bones being broken and her skin being bruised and her blood being spilled.

That as you can guess wasn't the first time she had been beaten no. And it was by no means the last. With every beating Aedan bounces back from the pain just a little bit faster every time, her body and mind having become so faimiler with the ever constant feeling of pain.

That isn't to say that she still doesn't flinch when that first boot finds her ribs, when that fist plows into her exposed stomach and that she still didn't feel the bile rise up in her throat. Nigel's furious and Aedan is still to small to fight someone of her size, so all she can do is wrap herself into a ball as the blows rain down, a punishment for not doing as she is told, for talking back , for being worthless, for being a useless little bitch.

The beating this time feels like it goes on forever, as if time has no meaning at all and that Nigel will never tire of raining blows down upon her unresisting body. A body that has gotten so used to pain that it takes her longer each time to pass out. She does though. Eventually. And that when for the first time in two years that Aedan dreams of something other than her parents being taken away from her. She dreams of earth. Of trees and mountains and snow, of people that are covered in leather and animal furr, of clashing swords, of knives, of bows, of words in a strange language she can almost understand and it all feels strangely real. More real then any of Aedan dreams of her parents and just before she wakes Aedan for a second thinks she sees her father amongst it all.

It takes Aedan a while, takes her hours actually, after she wakes up to gather enough strength to move, but she manages to crawl and claw her way back to her room, manages to get the door shut before her strength gives out completely and all the while the images flash over and over in her head. settling again and again on the glimpse of her father, confused. It keeps her awake through the night and in the morning she feels like shit, but somehow less alone.

The dreams continued, they like her beatings happened in no discernable pattern,unlike that day, she usually did not try to provoke Nigel on purpose, did not antagonize the woman with intent. She mostly stayed out of the bitches way, stayed away from everyone, as often as she could, which was never often enough to avoid the beatings. Aedan learned to stay outside the quarters that used to be her home for as long as she could and leave as early in the morning as she could get away with, she stayed away from people to the point that she hardly ever spoke anymore, hardly ever laid eyes on another soul outside of the lame ass set up for a school the people in charge had set up for the lower class in the Ark.

As disappointing as the school had been, it had also been Aedan saving grace. Because it was there, that Aedan made her first friend. There that she first meet Bellamy. There that she found someone who saw her for the first time since her parents death, saw her and not her test scores, not her genius level abilities, not her unusual amber red hair, or angelic looking face, who saw past the danger that lurked in her laser sharp green eyes and saw the pain and loneliness.

He was the only one to not overlooked the bruises. The only other person her age to wear the same sharp weary look that no child should possess, the almost animal-like tendency to circle others, the subtle and yet noticeable traits of self-preservation.

It wasn't that Bellamy was the only one that saw the abuse she went through, no there were others in the ark that had seen, that knew the truth, but that they did not wish to be involved.

They simply looked away.

Its why she never reached out, never asked for help because she already knew it would not come because even her fathers best friend, the one he had refereed to as Aedan's uncle Marcus, had not cared enough about her to save her from Nigel's grasp, then no one else here would either.

So Instead Aedan taught herself how to survive and she bided her time because she knew that the day would come and she would need it, and she's sure that day will come soon, because Aedan has now turned thirteen and she notices a change in the way Nigel's men watch her, in the way Nigel herself watches her.

Aedan buried herself in data pads, learned to learn for the sake of knowledge, and learned that you never knew what you would need in the future. She learned things no child her age should try to. She learned anatomy because one day Nigel would go too far and she needed to know where to strike, what would kill her and what she could live through, what parts of herself she needed to protect because no one else would and how to sew because she could not always bandage the wounds to stop the bleeding, burning them shut was too risky and Nigel would never spend her rashes on any medical supplies for her, of all people.

Even from her dreams of earth she learned things. She learned how to hunt, how to fish and fight with a sword, how to use a bow, how to clime trees, how to start fires and find water, how to build shelters and how to read tracks.

Aedan also makes it a point to study old earth languages extensively when she begins to absorb all the knowledge she can find. Curious to see if she'll come across anything like the words spoken in her dreams. She doesn't and is disappointed as it proves that all of it is the result of her overactive imagination, loneliness and desire for freedom.

So Aedan decides to ignore her dreams from then on out, forces herself not yearn for parents, forces herself not to spend her time wishing and dreaming that her father was alive somewhere on earth and that one day they would be reunited and live happily ever after like the people in her bedtime story's, like a naive child, she destroys the last bit of her innocence left in her in order to survive and throws herself into gadgets and technology as well as her studies of self defence. She learns to make vibrating proximity alarms that would wake her if Nigel or one of her men entered her room because the looks have become more predatory with each passing day, hungry cruel eyes always following her everywhere she went and it had never been a safe to sleep around Nigel before because of the beatings and now it was less so because she had already tried to touch Aedan, not beat her, but to touch her and oh God the memory of that night still makes her feel sick, like she would never be clean again and it was even less safe now, because Aedan had gotten out of there before she could get to far and made Nigel angry and sleep was vulnerability and she scented that like a shark to blood.

She know she has to get out, get away from Nigel's grasp somehow, but knows that Nigel will not let Aedan go so easily, not with out incentive. So she learns how to make small short ranged listening devices. She made weapons out of otherwise useless materials and learned to slink instead of move, to glide instead of walk, and to blend with the shadows at a moments notice. Aedan learned how to Hack the security system of the ark, finds a way to hack the doors, the cameras and gathers enough evidence to not only escape Nigel forever, but also get Diana Sydney floated.

But before she can use it the retribution from Nigel comes early than she expected in the form of three men. But it didn't matter because even though it had been early then expected Aedan had nonetheless been prepared because she was smart and she knew that night would bring them out, eyes shining in the dark as they tried to hunt her down and she was ready for them when they came. Aedan time had been spent wisely, braiding the shredded remains of a pillow case together until it was a strong durable rope, breaking the chair she had placed in the room awhile back and sharpening the pieces left behind in weapons.

All that's left for Aedan to do when her alarms go off in warning is to steady the panicked beating of her heart. But shes having some difficulties. She knows what will happen to her if she's overcome, knows these men will not only beat, but rape her and leave her wishing she is dead if she's still alive by the end.

The first one that came through the door was larger than Aedan was but just like she had a planed he and his companions step on electric metal plates she had wired to her room sockets and drop from the electric shock and the rope was almost too easy to get around his neck after that. It took remarkable little time or effort to increase the pressure and cut off the air supply to the man's brain before he went down.

One of the other two men recovers to quickly from the static shocks however and overpowers Aedan. He kicks Aedan to the floor braking a rib, but luckily Aedan is able to protect them enough to stop her lungs from being punctured but unable to do anything else as he breaks the fingers on her left hand under the heel of his boot as he looms over her. She almost doesn't make it, but in the end she does. When he kneels over her and his breath is on her face she turns her head away wanting to scream, but knowing it would do no good and she squeezes her eyes shut as stinging tears fall from her eyes, but when she opens them again they fall on one of her old makeshift knives under her bed and he, and a seconds later his other companion, meet the sharp ends of her makeshift knives.

FLASH

_Nigel was waiting outside when Aedan finally managed to stumble past the bleeding unconscious men in her room :focussing on her and her alone the moment she exits , looking more than a little surprised._

_Obviously, she had not expected an outcome where in Aedan would be the one left standing._

_Aedan believed that she could hear a whispered "not possible" fall from Nigel's mouth, as her eyes flicker from Aedan to the door and back again to meet Aedan's eyes with a look of fear._

_Nigel draw a sharp breath, when she see those wild green eyes burn in anger and the girls whole being seemed to changed colour in Nigel eyes. She suddenly appeared taller and her eyes were glittering dangerously and her presence immediately filled the room, as if her authority was the highest among the two._

_Slowly, the girl glided towards her, her movements reminding Nigal of a great cat, ready for the jump._

_Her charge comes to a standstill on the other side of the desk Nigal is sitting by and sits down and before Nigal can blink she draws a gun and aims it at Nigal forehead her laser green eyes pining Nigal in her seat._

_"I'm going to make it short for you Nigel. When they wake, you will take you're men and you will leave. You will not bother me again."_

_Nigel laughed, but there was such quiet reassurance in the girls voice, such majesty, that her laugh faltered and died away._

_"Do not mistake this for a request, Nigel," The girl told her quietly, but in a tone that left no room for doubt. "This is an order, and you will follow it , if you wish to keep you're life."_

_"Oh honey, did my men smash your noggin a little to hard? You are in no position to command me, girl", She mocked condescendingly._

_"Am I not?" Aedan smiled, her green eyes dark and bottomless, and it was the most frightening smile Nigel had ever seen. But forced her self not to react to it. She would not cover before a thirteen year old little girl._

_"Before you do something stupid, Nigel, let me warn you that I am not unprepared. I have expected you to take this course for some time, and there are three little parcels, full of incriminating evidence, deposited to three different members of the council , that are timed to be delivered at midnight every night unless I put in the coding that stops them from being shipped of ."_

_"Your bluffing. There is no way you have anything on me!," She answered, doing her best to sound totally unimpressed._

_But Aedan made a better show of being unimpressed than the woman could ever hope for._

_"Are sure are you about that, don´t you want to know what gifts I prepared for you?" She smiled again and lifted her armed hand, to count the three parcels on her finger._

_"One," she said, touching her right index finger with the head of the gun as if this was some basic exercise. "Is a small collection of photos and documents which prove your long lasting illegal partnership to our soon to be former chancellor Diana Sydney. The photos I am quite proud of, actually, I managed to capture you in… a variety of positions. Needless to say that this package is addressed to councilman Jaha, Nigal ."_

_Nigel started violently and looks at Aedan in shock a sudden unease begins to creep under her skin._

_"You are a stupid little bitch" She growled. "If you don't stop this Aedan. It will get you killed, child!"_

_"Number two," she continued, as if she hadn´t noticed Nigel's reaction or threat "Is a series of recording, all of which feature you, that prove your involvement in massive irregularities concerning the food and water supply shipments to the lower class. I found out that you have been manipulating the recordings of the shipments for years, keeping a larger portion to yourself. Need I go into detail, Nigel? We both know that proof of this affair is enough to send half the population of the ark on a hunt for your blood. And I have found more than enough proof."_

_The temperature in the room dropped abruptly._

_"And should this not be enough and you mange to save yourself from being floated, which I very much doubt then parcel number three will deliver it self to a Mr Malphas Monroe",Nigel's intake of breath sounded like an explosion in the absolute silence of the room. "Who I found out happens to be your boss. contains information about your dealings behind his back and proof your numerous attempts to take his place ."_

_The calm facade broke and a chaos of emotions darted over Nigel's face. Dread seized Nigel and she had trouble breathing trapped in the feral gaze of the small girl before her. Trying helplessly some sort of crack on the girls stony facade, that might tell her if she was bluffing or not. She found non._

_"So, Nigel", Aedan continued, her tone all sugar and honey now, as if she hadn't just uttered not only one, but three massive threats to Nigel's life. "What do you think of my preparations? Have I promised too much?"_

_Nigel opened her mouth, but no sound left it. The smile still on her face, baring her teeth in a subtly threatening gesture, Awdan waited patiently for her answer, as if she hadn't a care in the world._

_Nigel collapsed into herself like an oversized balloon._

_"Your… preparations were… excellent, Aedan," She admitted through clenched teeth. "Me and my men will be out your quarters by tonight. I hope this satisfies you!"_

_"No! you will get out now." Aedan replied. This time, her voice was colder than ice, and hard enough to cut glass, leaving no room for an argument._

_Sensing the danger in the girls voice Nigal pulled herself out of the chair and quickly retreated, dragging her wounded with her over to the door, existing as quickly as she could._

END OF FLASH

As soon as Nigel had vacated Aedan had take a deep calming breath Her hand went to the broken rib in her side and she let out a little whine of pain. There. That was it. Now she needed to grit her teeth and get through it and that what she dose, patches up her wounds as best as she can, Sets the bones in her broken hand and manages to wrap up her ribs before collapsing on her bed with tears of pure relief.

The years that follow are rather pleasant all things considered and she was for once at peace with her situation, even if she still was almost completely alone, even if she's still caged in a way. Because even though she had escaped Nigal, she can not escape the metal walls of the ark or the fact that she is unwanted and unwelcome. That was fine with Aedan because she was free to make her own decisions

The dreams still came to her every night accompanied with the voice whispers to her words that she still does not understand, things that should have no meaning to her and yet do like always and but now, now they feature a girl with long braided dark hair and quick silver eyes, that makes Aedan heart beat faster and her stomach tie up in knots.

Time goes quickly for Aedan for the first time in her life. She is not happy exactly, but she is content in a way she had never expected to be after her parents death and working on the ark as science officer.

But her dreams of earth have become cold and dark, and full of screams, that were become faster and louder with each dream, and because darkness always surround her, Aedan couldn't ever pinpoint where they were coming from - they just echoed in the dark void everywhere, around and above and below.

Coursing Aedan to always awoke with a jerk, breath and heart racing, after-images of fire and blood and pain imprinted on the inside of her eyelids. It was dizzying and she always tired from her lack of sleep, feeling even worse then the times in which she used to wake up in pain from Nigel's daily beatings.

The screams continue night after night for weeks. When finally they stop.

Aedan is nineteen, about to turn twenty in just four hours when it happens. She's buried in some reading material she can't recall and she falls asleep despite trying really hard not too.

888

Aedan squints as the sunlight hits her eyes burning hotly into her peripheral vision. She is standing in the middle of unknown forest with thick giant trees surrounding her everywhere she looks, and it's beautiful an all, but Aedan has no idea how she came to be there or where there is, because she would have remember if she had taken the a trip to earth.

She wonders if she's dead and if this is what her peace of heaven looked like. Which in itself is hard to comprehend because lately Aedan had been pretty sure she had been destined for hell.

Suddenly there is a crunching sound of leaves under the sound of light footsteps coming from behind and Aedan whirls around instantly.

Aedan squints, but once again the burning brightness of the sun makes it impossible for her to see the person hidden among the trees . "Who's there?" she asks, cupping a hand over her eyes.

Aedan frowns and narrows her eyes, tensing as the shadow in the trees starts to walk forward in Aedan's direction without saying anything.

Aedan blinks, dropping her hand, as the slight figure steps into the sunlight and she's able to make out the reasonably tall and lean girl with auburn hair and dark blue eyes and a sad grin. "Okay—who are you ?" she asks, taking a step back as the girl who looks so much like her only a few years younger steps in closer. Aedan glances at the girls get up in curiosity, not failing to notice that it was similar to what she has seen the worriers in her dreams of earth wear. "Where am I? Why am I here?" Aedan crosses her arms a little put out that the girl is not answering her questions. "Am I in hell? I went to hell didn't I?"

"Rest assured, this is neither heaven or hell isera," the girl finally says.

"Great," Aedan mutters bitterly. "I'm trapped in purgatory. Even God doesn't know what to do with me."

The girls chuckles. But her dark blue eyes are still so very sad that it couses Aedan's heart to twist painfull "My name is Costia ," she introduces herself stepping closer to Aedan invading her personal space.

Aedan stubbornly fights the urge to step back, unwilling to give the girl any ground. "Well, Costia, would you be so kind as to tell me where I am and why I'm here. Because the last time I checked, I was in my room reading a book and I think maybe I fell asleep?"

You know the polite think would have been to introduce yourself as we'll Aedan." The other red head responds clucking her tongue in disapproval as she circles around Aedan .

Aedan feels her eyebrow twitch in annoyance and her jaw clench in apprehension. "And how exactly would you know my name? I don't believe we ever met."

"One question at a time, ain isera. And no we have not been formally introduced before now, but I have dreamed of you since the day ain Nontu told me about you," Costia confesses as she circles her once more before stoping once again in front of her smiling softly at Aedan with dark blue eyes that remind her of her father. Placing hands on each one of Aedan's arm like she was about embrace her, "As for where you are—why, you are nowhere. We have stepped out of time and space—into a place between life and death, my Nontu told me a story about it once a place where the souls of the dying go before crossing over. I believe he called it limbo ."

"Okay wait. You say I'm not dead, and yet—I am in limbo a place that only souls can cross?" Aedan questions with a confused furrow of her eyebrows.

"You are not dying ain isera, I am. Ain gonplei ste odon." Aedan blinks at the calm deceleration from the sixteen year old in front of her, a strange unexplained feeling of pain squeezing the air out her lungs as she continued." But here, a thousand days can be but one minute across the threads and interweaved lines of fate and time. I will not keep you here long for I will soon pass on, I think you are only here because we are linked and I think I'm begging to understand why. I'm the thread, one of the many intertwined lines of fate linking you to your destiny. I don't know exactly how I know this, but, I know now that she is your destiny not mine. I was simply the bridge between your two worlds, until they become one. " Costia says with a sad look if realisation.

Aedan brow wrinkles in confusion and pain. "The line of fate linking me to my destiny? Just who are you?"

Castia smiles warmly. "I am Costia."

"I know that," Aedan snaps. "But what are you to me?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Aedan may be a genius but this girl is talking her down in circles with her cryptic answers . "Is it possible to get a spiritual headache? Because I swear I feel one coming on," she groans, dropping down to her knees and then plopping her butt on the soft grass. She folds her legs under her like a pretzel.

Costia chuckles and follows her example and joins her on the ground in front of Aedan, her knees touching Aedan's, and she finds that she doesn't mind the contact at all, doesn't feel threatens by her touch like she does by the the touch of others. "You two are going to be so amusing to watch, I can't tell by just having meet you. So different yet so alike. You're going to get under her skin and blow the walls my death has created into Oblivion. Bring back the humanity it robbed her off. And maybe there is a way I can help you with that, help fix the damage my death has caused. Show you a glimpse of what's waiting for you if you don't give up. There is not much I can say without giving away your true purpose. But it seems fate and I want the same thing, if the unity between you will help prevent the bloodshed I have foreseen should you're people come to the ground, then I think they will let me show you a glimpse of one of the possible future I have seen while here."

Aedan stiffens. "What are you talking about? My people are going to the ground? What dose any of this have to do with me?"

"Everything—and nothing."

Aedan sighs long-sufferingly." That is helpfully " Aedan says, crossing her arms."Not!" She mutters under her breath.

"Yeah I know" Costia replied with unmasked amusement.

Aedan who had been starring dawn at lush green grass whips her gaze up at her to glare at the annoying girl.

Only to find Costia is staring up at the sky. " But have you no idea how fated you are. How incredibly capable you are of doing such great things and bringing about such extraordinary change to my people, despite the fact that you are a sky person?"

Aedan didn't know how to take that. It is the most backhanded compliment if she'd ever heard one.

Aedan just stares at the other red head stunned- and confused, at her words . She's tired of talking in circles and she's certainly tired of her riddles."Ok enough! What are you talking? What do you want form me?"

"I want only form you what you would have for yourself."

"Oh yeah? And what's that exactly?"

"Take my hand and you'll see" Castia replies her eyes daring her to grab her hand. And Aedan has never been one to back down from a dare. So she grasp the hand offered to her.

FLash

_Suddenly everything goes black, and Aedan finds herself in a very dark tent, lying in some sort of makeshift bed. Staring at a small fire a few feet from her that doesn't help her make out her surroundings out at all. Before she can allow herself to be properly confused, the flap of her ten is pulled open and a slim female figure walks in. All Aedan can see is full lips, and a pair of strangely familiar silver eyes full of solid determination zeroing in on her under the mud and war paint before the moonlight from outside is cut off, as the flap of her tent is realised from the strangers hold, and said stranger strides towards her without a word and Aedan is a bit startled to be at the end of that gaze. Especially so when the silver in them appears to glow even in the dark and Aedan is off the bed in an instant, stumbling backwards, confused about what is happening. The figure matches Aedan step for step until Aedan finds her back colliding to some sort of a wooden post ._

_"Uh—what…?" Aedan never gets a chance to finish this thought because The girl-woman grabs her by the back of the neck and yanks her forward. Aedan is expecting an attack so she very surprised to feel a pair of lips meet her own and Aedan's eyes widen a fraction with every passing second._

_The girl is kissing her._

_Fucking kissingher._

_Aedan makes a sound and grabs at Girl's upper arms. She totally means to push her away and ask what the hell is going on but there's a talented hot tongue sliding into her mouth and her fucking questions just explode inside of her brain. The girl bears her weight against Aedan, pressing in closer, cornering Aedan against the post with a firm grip on Aedan's hips._

_The girl is kissing her passionately—savagely—like she wants to suck Aedan's very essence right out from her mouth. And Aedan squirms and whimpers because fuck, The girl really knows what she's fucking doing. All thoughts of protests die because the blood needed to process said situation is gathering south and convening with her libido right between her legs._

_Aedan can't breathe, can't breathe._

_The girl seems to take pity on her and she pulls back far enough to rest her forehead against Aedan's. They both just stand their, breathing raggedly and trying to gather their wits._

_"What have you done to me? I thought I lost you. I love you —I'm not letting you go. Ever. I hope you know that." The girl murmurs, sliding her fingers through her hair, along the side of her neck and under her chin before kissing Aedan again. This time the kiss is soft and insistent, like she had settled in to stay._

_Aedan closes her eyes and shudders. "Yes," she breathes without meaning to and just as she feels something begin to close around her heart, everything clears._

End of flash

"Now do you see?" Castia asks. "Whether she should want it or you should want it, you two will always be each other'sdestiny. Each other only salvation."

Aedan has nothing to say to that. She's still too shaken by what happened before. How could she do that to her? She was just learning to accept the fact that she would always be alone, to accept things as they were without her fucking interference! "What was-!why did-!," she croaks, not caring how broken she sounds.

Suddenly Costia's features turn fearful as her gaze shifts to something over Aedan shoulder and some protective instinct fires up in Aedan and she turns around to locate the source of the younger girls fear making sure to shield Costia with her body, narrowing her gaze when she spots the yellow fog creeping closer and closer to where they are standing.

Costia turns Aedan back around and smiles softly. "You and she shall understand when the time is right." She says steps in front of Aedan so now she is the one that stands in front of creepy looking fog and gives her a two-fingered salute. "Watch yourself, isera. Ain gonplei ste odon. But, yours is just beginning. You must go now isera! You can't stay here any longer, if you do you will never awake."

Before Aedan can protest it, there is a sinking and pulling sensation in her stomach and the ground beneath shake rips under her feet and she's falling into a hole like Alice in wonderland.

888

Aedan's eyes flutter open.

The feeling of loss is one she has experienced before but it doesn't hurt any less then it did the first time in fact she is pretty sure it feels even worse.

And just like when Diana Sydney told her about her parents passing Aedan looses it completely. Loses control of the constant fire burning inside her, and it wants to destroy everything. And she was moving in that next second, a haze of crimson rage drawn like a curtain across her eyes. She tore through her quarters ripping apart everything she could get her hands on, upending the desk, shattering the only photo frame of her parents against the wall. She was destruction incarnate in those moments, fire of the most destructive caliber sprung from the very depths of the underworld.

The flames raged against the walls of her mind the flames growing hotter and hotter intent on turning everything that surrounds her to ash disintegrating the bonds of Aedan control, ripping through her mind and leaving her bleeding and savage. In that instance, for a split second Aedan and the fire burn as one and their rage was magnificent,without mercy.

So lost is Aedan in the burning flames of her creation that she had not realised someone, had somehow, entered her home until Strong arms wrapped around her from behind, the force and weight of them pinning her furious clawing hands to her sides. She jerked her head down, determined to latch her teeth onto skin, to be freed so she could slaughter whoever had dared to touch her. She would not let anyone touch her like in the dream vision, she would not allow it again, it was not welcomed. The arms moved down before her teeth found purchase, hands hooking around her elbows, effectively neutralizing the threat from her mouth as well as her hands and arms.

The rage now was molten; a burning seething inferno that rolled beneath her skin and writhed behind her eyes.

Aedan fought, struggled viciously against the force that held her, her feet trying desperately to find a hold, to hit vulnerable flesh. Anything to free her, anything to no longer be held to be restrained was to be at the mercy of another, was unacceptable. She made a promise when she got away from Nigel she would never allow herself to be beaten, to be whipped again. Not ever again.

She felt the moment that the situation changed, felt the foot that hooked around her ankle and forced her to her knees. She struggled harder, twisted and thrashed in her spot on the floor but it was no use. The body behind her was heavy and strong, so much stronger than Aedan's as it bore her down to the ground, forcing her to lay face down on the floor.

She screamed a long loud feral noise that voiced her rage and anguish aloud. Panting she refused to stop struggling, refused to give up her fight. She would never stop fighting, would never give up a battle and retreat as long as she held breath in her lungs. Not again.

A voice sounded around her then, whispering in a language that she did not know. And Aedan's mind immediately went to her dream, to Costia and- and the girl, the girl in the tent, the one that had kissed her and the memory forced the flames to retreat from her skin, to cause the bubbling lava behind her eyes to cool and harden.

The memory vanishes like smoke in the next second though when she realized that the words she had heard did not come from within her mind but behind her. She recognized the tone of that voice, the soft slur of the words as they passed through pink lips. She could see them in her head, knew now who it was who had restrained her so effortlessly.

Jasel. The old man who lived next door to her. The one who watched Aedan with a knowing gaze, who never Spook to Aedan but who always was there patch Aedan when she couldn't do it herself. And Aedan could never figure out why Nigel even let him and Aedan never asked him why or ever said thank you.

" Such rage you carry. Clam yourself little hellfire. Be still." His voice was soft and slow, the tone almost rhythmic as he spoke.

After awhile, when the flame inside her cooled and she relised the man pinning her down had no intention of hurting her, Aedan felt her body beginning to relax, felt her muscles beginning to uncoil themselves one by one as all the while Jasel whispered calming words in her ear.

Finally the last of the fight began to seep out of Aedan not really, she had too much fight to ever lose it all but some of it could be stifled, could be shut away and hidden for a time and she stilled on the floor. Jasel held her there for a moment longer, his large muscular body a warm and heavy weight against Aedan's back. She was finally calm but she knew that Jasel was waiting to make sure that she would not try and lash out again; that she was done for the moment with her attempts at violence.

Aedan forced herself to take a deep breath, to release it slowly as she bottled away any remnants of her rage to use at a later time such emotions were powerful, would give her strength and resolve unlike any other if she ever needed it again and she knew that one day she would. She felt Jasel release his hold, felt the absence of the man's weight as he levered himself to his feet. And could help the feeling of pure relief despite know he wasn't a threat to her she couldn't have anyone on top of her without think of the night shed been overpowered and almost raped by Nigal's man.

She realised in that moment just how far she had fallen.

Losing herself in such a way was unacceptable; if Jasel had been the enemy Aedan would have been dead, her life's blood flowing across the tile due to her own stupidity. Jasel had gotten into the room, had laid hands on Aedan before she had even been aware of his presence and had taken her down in an instance. Such strength was impressive, should be studied and learned if at all possible.

So instead of rising, instead of crouching and preparing to attack she simply rolled onto her back and stared up at Jasel bulky form, cataloguing everything she could about him. They regarded each other in that moment, laser green eyes meeting warm brown across the distance between them. There was something in Jasel's eyes understanding, acceptance, not rage or disgust and that was so very rare that caused something to shift in Aedan's chest, some disjointed piece of her realigning itself with an almost audible click.

"What you did, how you took me down, what is it called?" Aedan's voice was soft and low, a calculated decision on her part to set the mood in the room. She did not wish to antagonize Jasel, not when the man had information that Aedan could not steal from him. As much as she hated to admit it she needed a teacher, not an adversary or a victim.

"It is called Systema, an ancient Russian fighting form that uses the body's levers as both a weapon and a weakness." Jasel's voice was just as soft and his eyes were sharp with a knowledge that Aedan was not used to seeing in anyone besides herself. "It requires discipline and control of the body on a high level."

"Teach me?" Aedan phrased it as a question when she desperately wanted it to be an order. She needed this, needed some way to channel the anger and the rage so that it did not over take her again. She could not afford to allow the flames the burning Phoenix to gain another foothold within her, could not let it run free in her mind or she would lose herself. Become a thing of the underworld a monster absent of all humanity, she knew it, because The Phoenix was so much stronger than she had ever thought it would become.

"To learn you must trust me and to trust me you must acknowledge the truth of yourself. Can you do this thing? Can you face your own demons and make them your servants so that you are never again ruled by the rage you just displayed?" Jasel asked his questions with an intensity that caused every nerve in Aedan's body to light themselves on fire.

To tame the Phoenix's flame, to make it her servant and no longer her equal would be a wondrous thing. If she could master that monster, if she could master herself then she would be unstoppable, would no longer be vulnerable from within. Yet to trust in someone else was an unheard of thing, a concept that she did not even enjoy considering because for her it had lost all meaning after her parents death . The best that she could do would be to fake it, to try her damndest to convince Old man Jasel of her sincerity.

Determined and set on her new course of action Aedan met Jasel's eyes fearlessly once again. "If that is what takes then I shall endeavor to do so."

That same knowledge from before flashed in Jasel's eyes and Aedan knew that the old man had not been fooled. Instead of calling her out on her lie, instead of outright refusing her Jasel nodded and held out his hand to Aedan's still prone form.

"Then your first lesson starts now." That hand remained steady and strong in Aedan's line of sight and she found that once she turned her eyes to it she could not look away. A senses of déjà vu fills Adean, the image if the girl, Costia fills her mind.

It symbolized too much, acceptance and knowledge, trust in a way she was not familiar or comfortable with.

To accept Jasel's hand was to begin her training, to begin tightening her hold over the flames and her struggle to tame it. To accept was to strive to one day hold the phoenix leash, to make it a tool and a servant for Aedan's own desires. Something to unleash and unmuzzle only when she truly needed it.

The Phoenix flame threatens to grow to become a raging inferno once more and Aedan slowly, oh so slowly reached up and clasped Jasel's hand in hers.

She had never before backed down from a challenge and she was not willing to start now.

And so Aedan life once again takes an unexpected turn.

On the one hand she gains a mentor and friend in Jasel and on the other she looses Bellamy. As only a few mouths later the existence of his sister comes to light when she is cought and imprisoned. The backlash includes the floating of Aurora Blake and he shuts him self away from the world and Aedan.

Until she turns twenty one, one year after the strange vision like dream of the girl called Costia, Aedan sets off for Earth.

0oOoOoOo

AN: Ok, so what do all of you think? Can you guess what the conection between Costia and Aedan is? Can you guess who the female kissing Aedan in the vision Costia shows her is? Should I continue?

**Translation**

"Watch yourself, isera. Ain gonplei ste odon. But, yours is just beginning.:- _watch yourself, sister. My fight is over. But, yours is just begging!_

"One question at a time, ain isera. And no we have not been formally introduced before now, but I have dreamed of you since the day ain Nontu told me about you," Costia confesses :- _"One question at a time, my sister . And no we have not been formally introduced before now, but I have dreamed of you since the day my father told me about you," Costia confesses_


	2. Chapter 2

**Previously**

_Determined and set on her new course of action Aedan met Jasel's eyes fearlessly once again. "If that is what takes then I shall endeavor to do so."_

_That same knowledge from before flashed in Jasel's eyes and Aedan knew that the old man had not been fooled. Instead of calling her out on her lie, instead of outright refusing her Jasel nodded and held out his hand to Aedan's still prone form._

_"Then your first lesson starts now." That hand remained steady and strong in Aedan's line of sight and she found that once she turned her eyes to it she could not look away. A senses of déjà vu fills Adean, the image of the girl, Costia, fills her mind._

_It symbolized too much, acceptance and knowledge, trust in a way she was not familiar or comfortable with._

_To accept Jasel's hand was to begin her training, to begin tightening her hold over the flames and her struggle to tame the creature that created them. To accept was to strive to one day hold the phoenix leash, to make it a tool and a servant for Aedan's own desires. Something to unleash and unmuzzle only when she truly needed it._

_The Phoenix flame threatens to grow to become a raging inferno once more and Aedan slowly, oh so slowly reached up and clasped Jasel's hand in hers._

_She had never before backed down from a challenge and she was not willing to start now._

_And so Aedan life once again takes an unexpected turn._

_On the one hand she gains a mentor and friend in old man Jasel and on the other she looses Bellamy. As only a few mouths later the existence of his sister comes to light when she is cought and imprisoned. The backlash includes the floating of Aurora Blake and he shuts him self away from the world and Aedan._

_Until she turns twenty one, one year after the strange vision like dream of the girl called Costia, Aedan sets off for Earth._

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_Love don't break the light, trying to find my way again  
Grey stars on the rise, navigate me on the mend  
The clock moves out of time  
Wading through the moments we left  
I trip to feel alive  
And die to forget_

_Lift me up and I feel lighter, __I'm living in a dream_  
_Wake me up if everything changes_  
_And nothing's what it seems_

_Come raise the dead, __I'm dreaming of the end_  
_Hallucinate the tables are turning and life_  
_Was everything you said_  
_Come raise the dead, __I'm leaning on the edge_  
_Illuminate the way to my heart_  
_It's twisting on a thread_  
_Come raise the dead_

**Chapter 2: Raise The Dead**

_8 Months Ago._

The moment, the Ark had installed into their system their plans for the drop ship that would be used to land the 100 on earth, she had know what was happening. Hacking into the arks computer mainframe had been a fun pastime for her when ever she was board and when she had come across a file marked classified in big, bold, red letters, it had been to hard for her to resist. And once Aedan had finished reading it, she had ran straight to Bellamy, knowing well enough that her long time friend would never allow his little sister to face the poisoned earth, and more then likely death by radiation, on her own. No way!

And just as she had suspected, when she finally found him, he had been inside his room sitting on the steel floor, his knees drown up, one hand holding the wait of his head, and the other, a gun!

It not had taken long for her to get the whole story out of him. Commander Shumway had offered him the opertunaty to stow away on the drop ship and reunite with Octavia, all Bellamy had to do was kill the chancellor.

Not trusting the situation or Commander Shumway at all. Aedan had offered an alternative course, not because she cared if the chancellor died or not, but because killing Jaha would haunt her friend, break the best parts of him irreversibly.

At first, everything had gone according to plan. Using the fake IDs and stolen guard uniforms her and Bellamy had bypassed all security obsticalls and had been seconds away from boarding the ship without being detected.

But then, out of nowhere the fucking chancellor had appeared, with commander Shumway in toe and despite her best efforts Bellamy had ended up shooting the chancellor anyway.

And things had quickly gone even more downhill from there. The technology on the ship began to malfunction and the drop to earth was to harsh for the stupid tin can of a ship to handle and the part of the ship Aedan had stowed away in broke apart and she got separated from Bellamy and the others.

And thats how she found herself alone on unknown planet, in the middle of a forest, that appeared strangely familiar to Adean. Unsettlingly so. With no way to navigate herself, complete lost.

Despite that, the ground seemed like paradise to Aedan, with unlimited resources, endless beauty and, most importantly, absolute freedom.

Soon after crash landing, it became apparent to her though that she wasn't as alone as she had thought. That, she and the 100 were not the only humans on the ground. There were survivors, grounders, as they came to be called.

She is out one day on one of her treks through the surrounding woods in a near by cave she had set up shelter in, when she hears the screams from the direction she had come from. Panicked she takes off running, because oh God what if it was one of the hundred or Bellamy or his sister Octavia and she didn't want anything to be happening to them.

The speed and agility she had honed through years of abuse and from Jasel strict teachings giving her feet wings as she sails over fallen trees and across babbling brooks. She slows when she gets closer to the edge of the woods and she stops altogether out of sight, to clearly take in the situation and is able to see what is happening. In the center of the clearing a boy who couldn't be more then twelve years old is on the ground, his hands cradling a girl a few years younger then him as she bleeds out into the dirt, Aedan can tell from the stain on her clothes and the pallor of her skin that the girl will die and soon if she doesn't get help quickly and her heart clenches as flames of rage begins to overtake her vision.

There are two masked guards standing above recognizes their uniforms robe to be something familiar to the ones worn on the Ark . But she knows their not. When one of them shifts Aedan sees they are holding another girl, who's features are an exact replica of the girl bleeding on the ground, Aedan assume their twins.

"Is there anyone else here? Tells us the truth and we won't hurt you." The voice is harsh, not the least bit truthful.

"There's no one here, mountain man ! If there were you would be the one bleeding on the ground!" It's the grounder boy who replies and he is glaring at the 'mountain men' while tears streak down his face to mix with blood that Aedan is not sure belongs to him or to the girl he is holding on to. The look on the boy's eyes lets Aedan know that grounder boy too, is aware that the girl cradled in his arms is well on her way to the afterlife.

One of The guards raises his gun and aims it at the boys head and is getting ready to fire. Aedan acts without thinking, reaches for her only remaining arrow at once, loads, draws and releases a single shot to the head, that shatters the glass of the CBRN respirator mask, hitting her target right between the eyes. The guard goes down and doesn't move. His eyes still, empty and wide staring up at the sky. Blood is spilling down his forehead, under the bridge of his nose and along his cheek bones, like tears.

Aedan has taken taken her first life now and yet she can not bring herself to care because the man had been about to take the life of a child without thinking twice.

The other guard is more of a challenge since Aedan has just gave up her element of surprise and the other man is obviously trained and strong.

She circles him, making no noise, concentrating on the rhythm of his footstep, the sway of his rifle on his back and when Aedan spots a opening on his defence she flows out of the shadows, knife in hand and attacks the guard before he notice her, sinking her blade deep in between a rib and ripping it out to slash at an exposed throat, and second life fades as easily as the first she had taken that night.

Aedan rises from her crouch over the fallen figure of the guard like hell spawn, covered in blood and eyes as sharp as steel and returns her gaze to the children, who have managed to hold their tongue and adopt the characteristics of a statue. "Are you guys ok?" she asks.

No answer.

Aedan stares down at the boy, who is standing in the middle, hugging the other two under each of his arms as they all huddle together defensively. The boy despite her estimation of his age looks tall enough to reach Aedan's chin. He has sandy blond hair that was braided in a way that vaguely reminded Aedan of a Elven warrior prince in her bedtime story's. And how weird is that to make that kind of comparison?

Aedan wonders if he isn't some sort of royalty here on earth and that's the reason she had made such a compassion because looking at him, he does embody the title of 'Prince' very well.

The two girls under his arms were his sisters no doubt—there is no mistaking the resemblance, now that Aedan is close enough to notice it —and Aedan guesses they are about nine or ten years old. They're both sporting unkempt bangs and the same long braided wavy, sandy blonde hair that falls short of their waist. All of the brown-eyed children have on tattered clothes, and look as if they'd been rolling around in dirt.

Aedan moves closer and watch them tense in reaction to her gaining proximity.

"Hey—you're safe now. I wont hurt you," Aedan promises, but as she takes one step closer, they shrink back with apprehension."I need to check your sister, she in very bad shape. We need to stoop the bleeding or she'll die, do you understand what I'm saying?

They still give no response.

"It's okay to be afraid. I would be too. A lot has happened to you." Aedan gives them a small smile and holds up her hands and puts away her daggers to show she's harmless.

The boy glares at her untrustworthily, but the girl looks at her curiously, then at her sister with fear in her eyes. Clearly debating weather or not it was worth the risk to let her near.

"I promise you I'm not going to try and hurt you," Aedan says, this time to the girl, as she steps closer.

The boy's lips twist unhappily as he curls his dirtied fingers around the edge of his tattered shirt and lifts it to expose the thick pink scar, sliced into the skin of his stomach, right beside his belly button. It looks like a stab wound. "Someone made us that promise before but I got this instead. And don't think I don't know what you are. I know your one the sky people, sky girl!" he mutters before dropping his shirt and returning his arm to his side.

Aedan feels her heart and stomach lurch unpleasantly. She's reminded of things—of the cruelty of life and people—she doesn't wish for her instincts to be true, but she knows that she's found a kindred spirit in this little boy. She has this bothersome feeling that tells her that they have some similar experiences in common.

I'm sorry, Aedan thinks, her green eyes meeting his untrusting brown ones. I know what that's like.

The boy and girls frown and eye her like they're trying to figure her out and Aedan just lets them, making sure that anything that they wants to know can be seen right on her face.

"Beliv. I think she really intends to help our sister" The unwounded twin to his left says looking pleadingly at her brother as she grips her sister hand tightly." I think we can trust her"

"I would no sooner trust a wild boar!" The boy mutters. But the fleeting look he cast down at the pale girl in his arms, let's Aedan know he is wavering in his conviction of not letting her near. "Don't be stupid Thalia."

"But she's dying Beliv,our sister, Noah is dying" the twin snaps, hands flinging about with rage. "So I don't think it matters."

The boy- Beliv, frowns and swallows slowly. "I—" he hesitates and for a moment, the anger and distrustfulness is replaced with helplessness and uncertainty.

"Fine" he relents and mutters under his breath before he lifts his gaze to meet Aedan's and growls. "I'f you make one threatening move sky girl, I will slay you and dress myself with your innards. Understand!

Aedan blinks. At the rather creative threat.

But sees the window of opportunity she is being given and she takes it. In three steps, she right in Beliv's and the twins space, making them flinch back in fright. Undeterred, she whispers, "You know—you don't have to like me, it's not a general requirement, but if I'm going to save your sister I do ask that you take the risk of trusting me. Because I'm going to need you do everything I tell you without question"she says as she examines the girls wound with a worried frown. No organs had been punctured she was relived to see. But the girl had lost a lot off blood- to much blood, so Aedan did not have enough time build a fire, let alone heat her blade before the girl died. So she had to figure out a way to close the wound right now and not a minute later. The only solution she could think of was gunpowder as her eyes landed on the rifle belonging to the mountain man she had killed a foot from her.

Beliv's frown didn't waver. "What do you want me to do?"

"See that," she says points to the rifle . "I need you to get it, pull out the bullet chamber and bring one of the bullets to me."

She glances at his sisters " You can get a stick or something else for her to bite down on because shes going to need it."

When Aedan turned to see what progress the boy Beliv had made with his task she finds him unmoving still in the same place. "What? What's the matter?" She asked impatiently looking back and forth needing either one of them to answer and quickly because they were wasting precious time!

"legend has it that our people will be slaughtered if we touch the weapon used by the mountain men" the little girl Thalia answered Aedan fearfully.

Aedan feels both her eyebrows lift in surprise."Ok!" Aedan signs in exasperation" legend doesn't say a thing about me, so I'll get it."before she gathers herself to her to her feet, grabs the gun, removes the chamber, and then the bullet and strides back to the wound girl in seconds.

The boy Beliv stares at her, his brown eyes going back and forth between the rifle and Aedan , before finally settling on her and searching her face, for what Aedan has no idea. But she thinks he finds whatever he looking for because while he doesn't relax completely, his scowl relents, as well as the suspicion in his eye.

Aedan pulls her gaze from the boy and makes sure to concentrate fully on her task, she has to be super careful not to create a spark of any kind as she takes one of her daggers and carefully and swiftly removed the firing pin end of the bullet from its casing. Once she had them separated, she had access to the black gunpowder inside the casing and pours a thin covering of gun powder onto the girls wound.

"Alright, now comes the hard part" Aedan warns with a serious tone, and motions for Beliv to stay where he is and his sister to come closer as she rips a peace of her shirt and soaks it with water handing the damp cloth over to the girl when she's done "You need to put that on your sister wound after I'm done ok?"

The girl nods, but her and Beliv looked confused, Adean thinks it's because they have never seen a wound cauterized by gunpowder. She wanted to reassure them, tell the neither had she, but doubted very much they would find that reassuring.

"What are you going to do exactly?" Belive hisses.

"Flame it up. This is going to hurt, I'm not going to lie warrior girl. But Your wound should be nicely cauterized and without you ever having to endure the pain of a hot knife. "Aedan promises, brave and wound Noah, who only nods at her words . "Of course, setting your wound on fire isn't much better, but it's a faster approach then heating a blade."

Aedan realises maybe she said to much because the boy Beliv is glaring Darkly at her.

"Ok. Take a deep breath" Aedan advised the girl and without further warning she takes the stone she had been using to start fires in one hand and a blade on the other and lights the powder up.

"AAAAARRGH!"

The girl utters a long loud piercing scream that vibrats through the open air like lightning.

And before Adean can shake of the painful effect the scream has on her ear drums.

Wooden spears! fly from the cover of the trees one after the other and Aedan dives towards the children and positioned them safely behind her body, hands fly to her weapons at the sudden appearance of fifteen armed men and women emerge from the woods like swarming bees. Surrounding her and leaving no opening for which she can exit.

A brunett decked in armer from head to toe and a brazen rush of exquisite features steps forward from the impenetrable line of of warriors .

Aedan searched the woman's face and found it to be a veritable map of a life conjoined with pain: her blue eyes were hard and in certain lights, seemed cruel, sharper than a dagger and divulging only ice.

Still, Aedan did not speak only griped her daggers tightly and waited, for she new, that any attempt to do so might end in blood.

Her thoughts proven true when the brunette called to a soldier behind her in unknown language. " Diaval, if yu nade, jak reive Ain goufa and frag op er"

"Nomon hod op. no! Don't kill her,She saved us!" The boy yells in her defence and Aedan is surprised. The words though strange, are familiar. They spear through her heart, bringing the lurching emptiness to the surface, despite her wishes for something more. Aedan watches carefully as the woman's gaze drifts to the fallen gourds the boy points too and back at Aedan with a look she can't interpret.

But despite the boys words the male solider moves from behind brunette instantly striding towards Aedan with predatory grace intent she knew on killing her but as soon as he came within her reach Aedan with speed that the grounder had not expected moved in a riotous blur that left him immobilized on the ground next to to the dead mountain guard with one dagger in his knee cap and the other pining his palm to the know bloody soil of the forest floor.

A stillborn silence fills the open air.

But before Aedan can do anything else the brunette leader Immediately, draws her sword and points the weapon at Aedan's neck. "Stand down," said the woman. "Let him go."

"No," Aedan hisses

"No?" Berdine raises a brow.

"No!" Aedan repeats with a sighn and roll of her eyes" You're going to kill me anyway so why should I ?"

"Indeed." Berdine closed the space between them, studying her. Aedan doesn't even want to fathom what that look in her eyes means—she's already confused as it is. "That was my plan. "Sharp eyes narrowed slightly,"Your the ghost that has evaded and escaped my warriors for months now "She stood a hand's breadth from the purported Aedan. "Your name sky girl?"

Aedan spoke through clenched teeth. "Aedan Cale."

"Said like you truly own it so it must really be" the woman said before pointing at her man" I am Berdine unite leader of the fifth Devision of the wooden clan and those are my children you have saved so I will not be killing you just yet Aedan Cale, release my warrior now or I will be left with no choice but to kill you."

Not taking her eyes off the woman or even moving to do as she had commanded Aedan sees another of her soldiers step forward and digs the dagger in her captive's palm a little harder "Hold your horses, cowboy," she says and called to the boy still behind her without looking away from the threat in front of her "Beliv is what she is saying true? Is this woman your mother?"

Beliv leaves his sisters side and moves in front of Aedan and nods.

Aedan nods and breathes and collects herself before retracting her dagger from Diaval's palm releasing him. And it's less than a second before she's being nudged forward with more than one spear in her back, but she pauses deliberately, turns around and glares at the persistent grounders with the same kind of apathetic heat she used to reserve for scoldings about her language from Jasel.

She turns around and waves a bloody, dismissive hand at the many spears trained on her.

"S'okay," she tells the warriors in mock reassurance. " I can move without poking and I'll go willingly. Well, it's not that I'm really consenting or anything, I mean clearly you're dragging me and this entire thing is really disgustingly forceful on your part. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I won't raise a fuss and snap one of your bones like I did to that other guy."

Aedan, says with heavy sarcasm in her voice and tried not to look as disconcerted as she felt with the thick tensions and weapons surrounding her.

Aedan saw the tension dissipated when the woman Berdine fled to her fallen daughters side and seconds later confirmed that she was still alive. All facades melted as the Grounder leader lifted the girl and embraced her fiercely. Her entire body arched around Noah as though reunited with a part of her that had been missing, or that she thought had been lost forever.

Her expression softened to the bare bones of relief and delight. In the few seconds a genuine smile swooped generously across her lips. The scene caused Aedan's inside to twist painfully, bring forth painful memory's.

"My little girl, my love," she said as she bestowed several kisses on her daughter's cheeks. "You're safe now."

Her gaze lifted and lingered on Aedan, still dangerously hooded and ambiguous. "Dena, take Aedan Cale of the sky people back to camp and make sure our…guest is comfortable but do not allow her to roam the camp or to speak to anyone."

"Yes, captain ."

"I trust you won't botch your task this time."

Dena voice faltered. "O-of course not, Captain ."

"Good."

888

_Present Day_

"Aedan," someone calls, clearing her throat.

Aedan turns from the view of the rising sun "Berdine," she acknowledges." What are you doing so far away from camp?"

Her visitor, is dressed in the same full armour she had on the day they had meet, with the only addition being a cape, that would not allow her to clime the tree she now leans against as she looks up at Aedan in clear disapproval.

"I came looking for you." Berdine pauses to study her. "Are you all right?"

"I will be, once I find out how you managed to find me. I thought I did a pretty good job at not leaving any tracks."

Berdine raises a brow. "You'd expect no less from me, general. And Let's not forget that I have lived in this woods all my life, not to mention I am one of the more intelligent ones."

Aedan can't keep the smile from pulling at the side of her lips. She had come to find since, their first encounter that day in the woods that Berdine was capable of surprising moments of lightness, that she was not always as ferociously grim as she had appeared that day. She had ability to utilise humour more effectively than even Aedan. It was a a tactic the woman who was now a almost a year later known as her second used to catch not only others off guard but also Aedan.

Adean warns, "I have a feeling you're about to burst into a long tirade. The mother in you can't seem to help it"

"Have I become so predictable in my old age?" Berdine asks.

She doesn't wait for a reply, tracing the bark of the tree Aedan has yet to come down from with her fingers. She breathes deeply as though gathering the strength to speak. After a while, she adopts a look of guarded curiosity as she does when she discovers something particularly useful and cannot decide on how to best exploit it.

Berdine continues, "Tell me, Aedan. Have you decided your path yet?"

They stare at each other. The union meeting of the five wood clan devisions and it's generals, which now included her, would take place only four hours from now . Each of the generals and the warriors of their regiment had been called by the Commander for the meeting at Ton DC for what could be an all out war with the sky people. To be reminded so abruptly of her responsibilities brings Aedan completely out of her pensive mood.

"In this battle against the sky people," Berdine clarifies when Aedan remains quiet. "Which side will you be fighting on I mean?"

"I know what you mean," Aedan snaps.

Today, it seemed Berdine avoids resorting to deceit. Her inquiry is plain and by extension, the answer must be, too.

Aedan wishes that she didn't feel so confined by her clothing. She always climb the trees because up here she felt out of reach, more free. But she can't seem to escape the caged feeling today even up here so with a sighn she rolls of the branch of the tree and She sinks and falls in to a crouch landing on her feet and massaging her temple as she plants her butt on the grass. With a tired voice, she ask a question of her own, "Tell me, Berdine... If I were to decide that I wanted nothing to do with this battle, would you follow my lead or challenge me for your old position?

Berdine scrunches her eyes closed, as though running a litany of reprimands inside her head. With her usual clarity, she chastise, "Aedan Must you always tread on dangerous ground?"

"I always have," Aedan answers simply.

"Yes I know." Berdine says with a resigned sighn. " I wish you wouldn't though. You make things more difficult for yourself then they need be. I will follow wherever you lead Aedan. We, your people, will follow you anywhere you lead. I've known you for almost a year now and if anyone is worth following it is you. You saved my children's lives, came back and saved us even after you found out my Heda had attacked the sky people you came here with. We all owe you our lives. We belong to you. If that means we might end up have to die for you, then we are willing to take that risk, you know that," she said. "There isn't a person in this devision that wouldn't die for you."

She know it's true and it couses something to roil within her like heavy oil.

"And what kind of leader would I be if I let them?" Aedan asked quietly.

"Like any other leader there ever was," Berdine said dryly.

"You're forgetting that I never wanted to be a leader in the first place," Aedan said. "I don't plan on playing by the rules."

"Do you ever?" Berdine asked, her voice somewhere between frustrated and amused. "You would think I would know better by now than to argue with you."

"You'd think so wouldn't you." Aedan sighs." I understand the mascara in the fourth devision village needs to be answered for Berdine, I do. But, I will only allow those responsible to be punished. I will not allow an innocent to fall under any sword belonging to me or mine are we clear."She says her hands tighten into fists. "I've seen my share of how men turn into animals. I won't let myself beacome one." Aedan gets up and takes five steps forward, invading Berdine's personal space until they are standing toe to toe."I've had enough of brutal realism to last me an entire lifetime! In the Ark, It cost me everything, Berdine. Everything! And I wont allow it to do the same here, to others, innocent others!"

Berdine blinks as though forcing a veil from her eyes. Her expression softens.

"You do so well by her. Yet you never meet her," Berdine says. She chuckles with self-derision. "By God. I never have done any better in your place."

Aedan forgets her anger. "What are you talking about?"

"My last Unit leader. I'm talking about the warrrior whose place you have taken." Berdine anwers with a pained smile and grasps Aedan's arm. "You need not worry Aedan the Commader sent a messenger. She has called a truce between us and the Sky people."

Aedan stares at her second in absalute shock for a seacond, then buries her face in her hand to hide her irritation. Whatever boundaries she puts up are always shattered by Berdine's intellect. "What?"

"I't seems. They have found a comman enemy." Berdine's voice lowers, as though imparting a secret, "The Mountian men."

"So!" Aedan says as she schools her expression to one of impassivity. " You were testing me!"

"I wanted to see what voulue we, you people, held in your heart," her Captain coughs." I wanted to know if we outwaighed your desire for revenge on those that attacked the sky people. I know there was someone you held to heart among them. I could tell from the look on your face, that day when you found out about the attack. I see now that i was wrong to doubt. Her spirit choose well." Berdine said with a hounted smile. While Aedan only looks at her stunned. " We must go back now general. We have a long way to go before we reach Ton DC." she called to Aedan as she started to walk away.

"Berdine!" Aedan calls to her and she stop's turning towards aedan with a qustioning look.

"Yes?"

"You never did tell me, What was her name? Your Last unit leader?" she Clarifies when Berdine only raises an eyebrow in response.

"Costia. " she says" Her name was Costia."

Aedan freezes in mid step in shocked disbelief, the name Costia echoing in her head over and over and over again.

888

Lexa lifts her head from her desk. Papers are strewn haphazardly on the wide oak table. Her long sword leans on one of its leg, glinting as firelight that sends streams of warmth around her wide tent.

There is noise All around her, coming from the outside of her tent. Her people are gathering their things for the gathering at Ton DC. Most of them less then pleased with the events of last night and neither was she, though for different reasons. The action of Clarke of the sky people had brought back memories, of her, of Costia that Lexa had long ago locked away.

Gustis bows and places a parchment on the table. "Heda."

She lifts the piece of paper and turns it in her hands. She frowns at the blood red circle of wax. "This is the seal of the fifth devision, this is from Berdine ?"

"Yes, Heda."

"She must have gotten my message. I wonder if this explains her absence. Or the complete lack of news from her this past month." Gustus remains silent and Lexa narrows her eyes at him. "What do you know, Gustus?"

He does not meet her gaze and his voice is apologetic. It is obvious to Lexa that her first Warrior has conversed with the messenger.

"It seems that around the time we launched an attack on the Sky people, the Mountain Men launched an attack on Berdine's consistency. Knowing that she would be unable to call upon us for aid and that we would be weaker without our strongest devision to back us up in future battles."

"What! How did I not know about this before now Gustus." Lexa demands. Anger, such that she had not felt since Costia's death, rises from within like a black and dreadful dragon. Its an overwhelming weight that perches on her shoulders and threatens to never leave her.

"I will not let this stand. Death will sweep the mountain and the ones that occupy it. It will not leave until the monster in the mountain throne has been flayed alive." She turns to her first warrior who appraises her and the terrible darkness brewing in her eyes. " How did Berdine survive? How many survived with her? How many were lost? " The first warrior visibly swallows, wiping his palms against the wool beneath his armor.

He should have know this would happen the fifth devision had been Costia's before it had been handed over to Berdine for safe keeping until Costia's spirit chose her true successor, and a strike to these people was like a strike to his Heda's heart all over again.

" All but twenty warriors survived Heda." Gustus answers as he tries to school his face into its usual calm.

The brewing darkness stills, in shock at the news"How was it possible that so few we're taken in such attack?"

"Heda. I-I think you should read Berdine's message."

Lexa regards him icily then waves him off. Gustus leaves with a bow, shutting the flap of her tent behind him.

She sits down and eyes the rolled piece of skin like a beast that can strike at any moment. The material is unlike anything that is used on the battlefield. She opens it gingerly, knowing from the finish that it has been abraded with pumice and treated with a special concoction of lime or chalk. She recognizes that it is not the ordinary parchment at all but rather, purple vellum, which is reserved for royal commissions. The writing will not fade easily from humidity or heat.

Her eyes move over the text. The calligraphy is careful and deliberate, undulating with a message that somehow, manages to silences the dragon within, and shatters the walls she has built.

After two years of warriors from all five devisions of the wood clan trying and failing, someone had completed the task Costia had left for the one whom would become her successor upon her death.

The fifth Devision had a new leader. And she was the reason they had survived the latest attack from the mountain.

Costia's spirit had finally chosen.

0oOoOoOo

AN: Thank you so much to all who reviewed. I hope the new chapter doesn't disappoint. Please let me know what you all think.

**Translation**

Her thoughts proven true when the brunette called to a soldier behind her in unknown language. " Diaval, if yu nade, jak reive Ain goufa and frag op er!":-" Diaval, if you would, retrieve my children and kill her!"

Nomon hod op. no! Don't kill her,She saved us!" :- Mother wait, stop! No! Don't kill her, She saved us!


	3. Chapter 3

**Previously.**

_"I will not let this stand. Death will sweep the mountain and the ones that occupy it. It will not leave until the monster in the mountain throne has been flayed alive." She turns to her first warrior who appraises her and the terrible darkness brewing in her eyes. " How did Berdine survive? How many survived with her? How many were lost? " The first warrior visibly swallows, wiping his palms against the wool beneath his armor._

_He should have know this would happen the fifth devision had been Costia's before it had been handed over to Berdine for safe keeping until Costia's spirit chose her true successor, and a strike to these people was like a strike to his Heda's heart all over again._

_" All but twenty warriors survived Heda." Gustus answers as he tries to school his face into its usual calm._

_The brewing darkness stills, in shock at the news"How was it possible that so few we're taken in such attack?"_

_"Heda. I-I think you should read Berdine's message."_

_Lexa regards him icily then waves him off. Gustus leaves with a bow, shutting the flap of her tent behind him._

_She sits down and eyes the rolled piece of skin like a beast that can strike at any moment. The material is unlike anything that is used on the battlefield. She opens it gingerly, knowing from the finish that it has been abraded with pumice and treated with a special concoction of lime or chalk. She recognizes that it is not the ordinary parchment at all but rather, purple vellum, which is reserved for royal commissions. The writing will not fade easily from humidity or heat._

_Her eyes move over the text. The calligraphy is careful and deliberate, undulating with a message that somehow, manages to silences the dragon within, and shatters the walls she has built._

_After two years of warriors from all five devisions of the wood clan trying and failing, someone had completed the task Costia had left for the one whom would become her successor upon her death._

_The fifth Devision had a new leader. And she was the reason they had survived the latest attack from the mountain._

_Costia's spirit had finally chosen._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_I keep going to the river to pray_  
_'Cause I need something that can wash all the pain_  
_And at most I'm sleeping all these demons away_  
_But your ghost, the ghost of you_  
_It keeps me awake_

**Chapter 3: Ripples In The Water **

_Costia._

The name it echoed over and over in her head.

Aedan sighed and rubbed her hand over her eyes as memory's floated through her mind.

The sun prickled her neck, wriggled its way into the spaces of her green leather jacket. Aedan rubbed her shoulder to chase the hot, tingling fingers of exasperation.

Sweat began its ruinous path down her forehead, her temples, pooling at dark places beneath her clothing. It caused such stickiness and discomfort that any other day would have had her complaining as she blew a frustrated breath out.

But her mind focused only on , the day's revelation, on Berdine's words.

**FLASHBACK**

_"Berdine!" Aedan calls to her and she stop's turning towards aedan with a qustioning look._

_"Yes?"_

_"You never did tell me, What was her name? Your Last unit leader?" she Clarifies when Berdine only raises an eyebrow in response._

_"Costia. " she says" Her name was Costia."_

**END FLASHBACK**

Aedan could feel her fingers going uncharacteristically numb in light of the information she had jet to absorbed. She had known somewhere distantly in the back of her mind that it was possible there had been some truth to her vision like dreams after landing on earth and encountering grounders that spoke in the same language as the one spoken in her dreams . Yet faced with the reality of this she was more then stunned. Aedan was confounded.

**FLASHBACK**

_Aedan blinks, dropping her hand, as the slight figure steps into the sunlight and she's able to make out the reasonably tall and lean girl with auburn hair and dark blue eyes and a sad grin. "Okay—who are you ?" she asks, taking a step back as the girl who looks so much like her only a few years younger steps in closer. Aedan glances at the girls get up in curiosity, not failing to notice that it was similar to what she has seen the worriers in her dreams of earth wear. "Where am I? Why am I here?" Aedan crosses her arms a little put out that the girl is not answering her questions. "Am I in hell? I went to hell didn't I?"_

**END FLASHBACK**

Her mind reeled with the thought. The words were real, the language, the girl Costia, actually existed. Or had existed. She wasn't crazy; her mind had not fractured under the stress of her nightmare of a life or a head injury and created a nonexistent entity.

For a single moment she allowed herself to bask in the beauty of such a thing. Then just as suddenly the rest of the situation crashed into her mind.

_If the words were real and the girl Costia had been real then...,then what of the vision Costia had shown her, the one with the tent, the girl, the kiss, had that been real too? Was the silver eyed girl somewhere out there._ The thought shook Aedan's whole being with emotions she din't care to name and for a moment she forgot how to breathe.  
So she pushed it away, only for her mind to be filled with another aganozing thought.

_Did this also mean that the glimpses of her father had been real too. Had he survived his punishment, his drop to earth ?_ But this too was question Aedan could never hope to have answered. So this thought too was forcefully and painfully pushed away.

Aedan had in all this years never once considered the possibility that somewhere out there was a being who had invaded her mind. That someone had wormed their way inside her thoughts, had spoken with her, through their thoughts, their memory's. For how could such a thing be possible? ESP? Some sort of psychic link?

**FLASHBACK**

_"You are not dying ain isera, I am. Ain gonplei ste odon." Aedan blinks at the calm deceleration from the sixteen year old in front of her, a strange unexplained feeling of pain squeezing the air out her lungs as she continued." But here, a thousand days can be but one minute across the threads and interweaved lines of fate and time. I will not keep you here long for I will soon pass on, I think you are only here because we are linked and I think I'm begging to understand why. I'm the thread, one of the many intertwined lines of fate linking you to your destiny. I don't know exactly how I know this, but, I know now that she is your destiny not mine. I was simply the bridge between your two worlds, until they become one. " Costia says with a sad look if realisation._

_Aedan brow wrinkles in confusion and pain. "The line of fate linking me to my destiny? Just who are you?"_

_Castia smiles warmly. "I am Costia."_

_"I know that," Aedan snaps. "But what are you to me?"_

**END FLASHBACK**

What had Costia been to her? How was she connected to Aedan?

In what way were they linked to each other?

Aedan honestly didn't know how to even feel about the fact that this person, this Costia, had somehow crawled inside her mind and lived there for years.

Inside the recess of her mind the Phoenix flames burned hot once more, that part of her, the monster inside her, it did not like the thought that someone had been inside their head. Had possibly, been witness to the time when they had been week and in pain. The Phoenix was outraged, how dare this girl invade her mind, force a connection to take root in her soul only to rip it out with her death?

The lonely little girl inside of her however, was grateful, because without her, and the reprieve the dreams had offers her from the nightmare that had been her life. Aedan was sure the loneliness would have swallowed her whole and given the Phoenix free reign.

Her death sure almost had. She Remembered that day clearly as surly as it had been yesterday.

Her eyes clenched closed and her hands tightened around the edges of her horses saddle so hard she felt it creak before she loosened her grip. Slowly she forced her eyes back open, staring but not seeing the path in front of her. She took a shuttering breath and then another.

The process was slow but she forced her focus back down onto the path in front of her she continued to breathe slowly. A single thought reverberating inside of her mind, a snarled loop of suspicion. Why had Berdine, who had spoken with such fondness for her deceased leader never mentioned her name to Aedan not once in the whole time she had known her? Why had there been such relecuntce, on her face to give it up when Aedan has asked for it directly. The thoughts set to the music that was the agony of her soul. Because she had come care for her second deeply, like family, trust her, like she only ever had Jasel and Bellamy. And if the woman was purposely keeping something from her, then Aedan din't think she could ever trust her in the same way again.

It would seem, she had another task to see to in her future now. Questions she needed answered.

888

Theirs was a path driven into the bed rock centuries earlier, unlit but for the few rays of sunlight came from the in between of leave and overrun weeds. The trail was barely discernable but for the way gnarled, oversized bushes bent over it like a cave of brambles.

This was the path they had chosen to take to Tondc and seven was the number Clarke of the sky people chose for her party. At Indra's insistence, Lexa rode with Gustus in the center of a protective group composed of Indra herself, two of her most capable warrior's, Clarke and her attendants with them, for they were not warriors and would be the first to fall if attacked.

This was also the reason she had chosen a more elevated, if not longer, path to Ton DC instead of a the usual shorter one that would have been more easily ambushed and ordered four of her devision warriors to remain on their horses to scout the vicinity ahead of them.

Outwardly Lexa made sure she seemed more standoffish than ever, her eyes roaming the surrounding knolls and inspecting the shadows behind towering rocks or trees. She was perpetually observant, her hands ghosting over her weapon, her creaking leathers and war paint, all of it acting as a figurative suit of armour which protected her from scathing emotions and unwanted attention. It was a symbol of prowess, power and fear in the presence of her enemies. A stark reminder of just how dangerous she was despite her seemingly relaxed air and youth.

The Commander in her despite her central position and inner turmoil directed all of them wordlessly, flawlessly in a secret, universal language that had been notched into all her movements. It was expressive in an authoritative way, a learned skill composed of the crisp and concise movements she had refined during her time as a general under Anya's tutelage.

But inside...Inside she was chaos, a brewing storm of emotions that she was fighting hard to keep in check.

Gustus beside her was just as vigilant, but still the power of his concern and unease for her was pounding against Lexa's unfeeling walls like an insistent drum at the eve of a siege. The concern which was so obvious to her was concealed from all others by his seemingly constant calm and quiet nature.

"Heda?" Gustus ventures, uneasy at the Commander's brooding silence.

"It's alright, Gustus. I am fine. I am calm. I have always known the day would come."Turning to her first warrior , Lexa studied the still furred brow and asked, "Something else weighs heavily on your mind, Gustus. Speak true."

Gustus like many times before emerged flummoxed at his Heda's sharpness. "Heda? I..."

Lexa simply waited.

She followed his troubled gaze and her eyes fell on Clarke and her second Bellamy, who stalked the path that led to Ton DC with as much unmitigated grace as all warriors but with seemingly more authority.

His hold of it unlike Clarke's however was cruder, a more primal dialect that forced one to heel or to acquiesce

"I see." She said in understanding" Stop worrying, Gustus. It's like you've always told me, all alliances are risky ."

"This is not the same as uniting the twelve clans. The sky people are different, " Gustus gaze turned to the ground, as though the courage to explain could be found there. He seemed to instantly regret having started the conversation. "They're more like the Mountain Men than us . It could kill our coalition. "

" Our coalition...or me?"She raised a questioning brow in Gustus direction.

The warrior cleared his throat and looked away. "You are the coalition, Heda."

When she turns to confront Gustus, her eyes are a thick and frozen silver; her face is emotionless. "Then do you job and protect me." She said putting an end to the topic of the conversation as Behind chaotic, tightly knit web of leaves and striking colors, of yellow, red and green, she could finally make out a small clearing with trees hiding a majestic view of a hauntingly familiar river that acted as a border line for Ton DC.

The river, if one could call it that, was a roiling mass of blues and greens, in a shape concurrent to that of a breaking ocean wave when looked at sideways. It fit two persons abreast his or her horse, and like a thing alive, seemed to swallow and regurgitate the scenery surrounding it.

Lexa dismounted, prompting all but those already not on foot to do so also.

With the Commander in full control and the part of her that was Lexa barred behind unfeeling walls, she opened her arms grandly, and commanded instructions in a calm tone. "All of you cross the river one-by-one. Be weary of the current, though not to deep, it is stronger then it seems and will nock you of your feet. Quickly, now."

As instructed Indra and her two warriors went first, followed by Clarke and the rest of her sky crew. Then Lexa with Gudtus by her side, the rest of her warriors would have followed soon after behind them.

But, the moment Lexa stepped into the water; she knew that something was terribly wrong.

And seconds later she was proven right as from the cover of trees reapers emerged on both sides trapping them.

It was a band of thirty reapers against seven of lexa's warriors on one side with the rest of her warriors barred on the on the other. An all out battle ensued. One of Indra's experienced veterans –the first one to reach the other side of the river –was fighting just as vigorously as the rest despite several bleeding cuts, covering an area that otherwise would have been relegated to two men. To everyone's surprise, she was immediately dispatched in a spray of blood by-a particular vicious looking reaper.

Indra was screaming, her sword ringing against a flurry of other weapons. She was already again on her horse, slashing at reapers below her and allowing her animal to crush anyone in the way.

An old wrath crawled from the edges of Lexa's vision, oily and dark in its power.

The crunch of bones, a few tortured wails, then, Lexa had enough, the restless dragon within her roared "Gustus! Rina! Daemon! Form a shield wall to the right! Cover us as long as you can! The rest of you with me now! Break their perimeter line!" Lexa commanded her warriors. Her sword squealed as it was removed from it's holsters, it's familiar heft lending all that she needed for her blood to start boiling in the pleasant temperatures of wrath.

She stepped forward blindly, her stance low as she stabbed the first reaper in the gut, the burning pain of the metal blade doubling him over. Arcing into another offensive blow, she cut the next one's head, splitting head from body. Already, the air was beginning to smell like blood.

Lexa grinned. This was something she never ceased to enjoy. This was a welcome reprieve from everything.

She stole a glance of the sky crew who had been one of the first to enter the waters and closer to reaching the other side of the river, but also unable to because of the hand of death that awaited them there.

Lexa shouted, "Indra! The sky people!" To Indra and the two warriors, she snapped, "Rally to the other side of the river ! Now !"

She proceeded to cut a circle around the sky crew, her sword singing as Indra and the two warriors followed her lead in forming a defensive perimeter of their own. Nearing Clarke and the one called Bellamy, who had stationed himself in front of her like a shield and was holding his weapon at a ready, shooting at reapers whenever he had a clear shot, Lexa kicked an oncoming assailant, sending the reaper flailing backwards into another reaper behind him. The delay she created allowed her to scoop the one called Raven from cold waters and push her within the defence perimeter where she would be safe.

Bellamy grabbed the girl, her face and knuckles ashen as she bit back her fear with pure determination the girl grabbed back, but instead of slinking behind him, she's stood at his side her pistol drawn. The sky warrior watched her take her place beside him, looking for all the world like this was all normal. Lexa admired the quality and understood why he was Clarke's second. Emotions in the midst of battle was something not many could tether.

In the ensuing chaos Lexa watched as an arrow flew from the other side striking a reaper who's sword had been seconds from piercing Lexa's heart and a flash of red followed by different shades of brown breached the reapers defensive line. She could hardly believer her eyes. Lexa instantly recognises Beridine and the star-like weapon she wielded immediately. The Fifth was here. Relief fills her inside. They had finally made it to the border of Ton Dc.

However before she can truly even register the timely save. The flash of red captures her minds eye. The same red that first breached the reapers defence line. And something else. A sword, strapped to the back of the figure with hauntingly familiar amber red hair, that haunt's Lexa nightmares like a flame in black pitch darkness.

Costia.

The air was suddenly harder to breathe as though the world around her had been compressed into a tiny space banishing even their little scene of violence.

The river. The battle. Everything winked out of existence as Lexa Commander of the ground leaned helplessly against her horse, the water rippling beneath her feet stirring from the sudden movement of them moving forewarned and then backing away unsure of what course to take. Her face was devoid of all her masks, her walls crumbled to ashes, as she tried to move forward or grasp with all her heart and mind at the ghostly illusion in front of her from whatever remained of her reserves. Lightning sparked beneath her skin, the air rattled her lungs, and the hairs on Lexa's back began to stand on end.

"Aedan" The sky warrior, Bellamy breathed out next to her, reverence in his tone and something akin to worship in his eyes. As if hearing the red head turned and the illusion vanished like smoke before Lexa's eyes as hers connected, not with deep warm blue gaze that haunted her memory's but a wild pricing emerald green that Lexa could not look away from.

It was too late when she recognized the danger coming at her from the, now exposed side , her eyes widening as the reaper approached her and with the reaper too close and too quick for her to counter with a barrier of her own, Lexa felt a short, powerful burst force of a fist like solid concrete hitting her abdomen. It knocked her of her feet and into icy waters.

Lexa fought to swallow, to breathe but it was a loosing battle.

888

Aedan dispatched her opponents, leaving a heap of groaning, reapers in her wake.

"Berdine, cover me!"

Immediately, her second stepped into place as Aedan ran towards the motionless figure of the Commander.

The sight of the woman in her merchant's red cloak and dark leather falling made Aedan want to retch. The Commander till now was someone she had envisioned to be someone similar to Diana Sydney in almost every way. It had taken one accidental meeting of the silver eyes in the mids of battle, to rid her of the notion. The storm cloud eyes that had met Aedan's own had been full of emotion. The gaze of the commander belonged to a soul as haunted and tortured as Aedan's own.

That was not to say that there had been no darkness to those eyes, because there had. Aedan had seen that too. When Aedan had turned and the sunlight revealed the commanders eyes, they lanced through Aedan with the clarity and intensity of a hot summer day.

Many would have considered that glance benevolent. Aedan had known her father behold such a gaze and had caused his cadets more then once to splutter the truth because of it and she dint doubt the commanders gaze was something that forced many enemy's to trip all over themselves to appease it. Clan leaders and warriors were indebted to it. Aedan herself had felt for a second captive of it.

But so unlike the blue-eyed gaze of her father, the efficacy of The Commander's glare came from a distinct artifice.

Underneath the calm diplomacy was the mantle of cruelty and decisiveness often worn by a leader who declared war and did not delegate the task lightly to her generals. Instead, she carried out the sentence of death herself. Aedan had experienced that mantle as one of Diana Sydney's victims and understood that it made its owner unhesitant and relentless in her pursuits.

For the The Commander, the quality was a pitiless foundation that buttressed a beautiful, kind face. A face which had been hers by birth-right and which no doubt served the purpose of keeping everyone unarmed for and unaware of her arsenal.

It fooled everyone but Aedan.

The story's told by Berdine had been right. The people of the ark would have trembled and fallen dead one by one before this Commander if the truce had not been called. If Aedan alone without her devision by her side had chosen to apose her- and she would have, she would have surely died in the attempt. Maybe by the Commanders hand herself.

The grim chariots of war rode on her shoulders and she carried them not like one would a burden but like a squall that could be unleashed when the situation called for it. There was wrath there like that which fuelled a Fire not very different to Aedan's own but it was not short-lived as a Aedan had come to be. Rather, her fury was an undercurrent that had been meticulously tamed over the years.

It was the staple of a tyrant, Aedan thought unkindly. But all the information Aedan had been gathering about her so far suggested that unlike a tyrant, The Commander owned a rare restraint. She knew her own strengths and understood the destruction they could yield. There would be no igniting them even when riled. It was evidence of a righteous pragmatism that may have been hers long before she become leader to her people.

For reason that Aedan could not explain the thought of this girl dying was-

It was unthinkable. It was terrifying.

So here she was, running in a half-panic, already feeling the long, cold tendrils of fear crawl up her spine as she saw no sign of life from a body only a few feet from her.

Aedan could now see the man next to the commander fighting to protect her from the reapers and instantly recognised him to be Bellamy. Her friend was alive! Joy and relief crushed into her within her with such force that it almost knocked her of her feet. But, she dint have much time to dwell on the feeling before panicked seized her when she saw him lose the battle with the reaper and said reaper raise his sword to behead Bellamy.

"Bellamy, watch out!"

Aedan shifted her body weight as she moved, mustering strength from the ground and her legs. Then she lunged forward and ran into the reaper. She slammed one Her daggers between his ribs, the other hitting his thigh. In one, smooth movement she swung the man to the ground, using her blades as anchoring points.

Aedan's then empty outstretched hands wrapped instantly around the reaper's head as the reaper was straining to release himself from her daggers and snapped his neck. Finally free of her dangerous opponent Aedan instantly and little frantically grasped for the fallen Commander, and in what felt like forever, Aedan managed to pull the unconscious female warrior back to dry land. When she turned to check on the ongoing battle and Bellamy, Aedan was proud to see the boys assessing gaze, to watch as he took in his surrounding, eyes wary as the last of the reapers fell at the end of Indra's and Berdine's swords, before they brightened and his handsome face was lit with a blinding grin when he finally looked at Aedan again.

"Aedan."Bellamy breathed out her name, as he hesitated for a brief moment before springing forward, long legs eating up the ground between them. He stopped only when he was directly in front of Aedan and then only so he could wrap his arms around her petite waist and bury his face in her hair.

Aedan's hands rose of their own accord to bury themselves in her best friends unruly curls. She was still so very unaccustomed to touch that she herself did not initiate but she would not deny comfort to one of the only few people she had called her own. Comfort that was desperately needed if the tear drop she could feel on her neck was anything to go by. Gently she grasped Bellamy by the face and lifted his head so that she could look into his eyes. Softly she thumbed away the one tear that rained down from copper colored orbs and with that macabre twist of her lips that was solely her she smiled.

"I'm here." Her declaration was soft and yet it carried such power within it.

Bellamy breathed shakily, his shoulders shuddering with effort as words began to spill from his lips, something very close to hysteria in every syllable, relief in every phrase as he struggled to speak through his guilt and very apparent self blame . "I didn't think….I searched, but I didn't think. I waited but you never came. I thought you were dead and I knew it was all my fault. I'm sorry so sorry…..so sorry Aedan….I"

Aedan shushed him, "listen to me Bellamy! What happened was in no way your fault. It was my choice to come with you. You dint force me!" her voice a low uncompromising caress as she tried to ease the other boy's guilt. Her feet and eyes already turning once again towards the still unconscious Commander.

Aedan cleaned her bloodied blades with a cloth, sheathing and setting it aside as she bent over to study the Commander. Hesitantly, and inexplicable afraid. Her fingers delicately explored the skin around the Commander's neck and brought her hands to a pulse point just under The Commanders jaw and for a few moments, Aedan stared transfixed.

Soon Berdine and a dark skind female warrior were beside them and both gazed disparagingly at the Commander.

Her second studied the Commander, taking in her stillness, then turned to Aedan with a pained look in her eyes" Is she dead?"

Aedan shook her head, put a hand on the Commander's chin. Turned her head to the side, allowing any water to drain from her mouth and nose. Then turned her head back to the center. "No. I think she just swallowed to much water. We need to get the water out of her lungs."

Aedan shifted closer so that she towered over the commander and pinched her nose.

Turning to Aedan, the dark warrior beside Berdine demanded, "What are you doing to her?"

Not paying any attention to the the threatening way in which the dark warriors hand moved to his blade or the in which Berdine instantly moved to stand between Aedan and the warrior and leaned down and strongly breathed four times into the mouth of the injured girls to help air get past any of the water clogging the breathing passageways and the lungs of the Commander.

After four strong breaths, Aedan puts her ear near the commanders mouth and watch her chest for any breathing movement.  
Check the pulse for signs of life.  
Repeat the cycle over and over again.

Until finally.

The Commanders chest –which gave no discernable movements before –expanded greedily. She sucked in several portions of air as though she had been holding her breath and for a few, terrifying seconds, she shivered violently, choked and murmured several words that made no sense. The words subsided into a few broken phrases before a healthy, pinkish hue returned to her lips and cheeks. Sweat broke across her brow and her hands remained balled into fists. She seemed troubled, her face in a grimace, as she struggled with something unseen.

Aedan just going try and breathe herself now, cause that was a freaky experience, and then the commander is staring at her in surprise, and regotnition ?

"Costia," she says.

Aedan blinked, because, okay…what? "Sorry ?" And then Aedan finds herself once again on the other end of the most intense and concentrated stare. That gaze is so dark and warm; it makes her heart thrum in curiosity, which, um, that's something new. They shine with such longing and seem to see beyond her and why did those eyes seem familiar?

Aedan inches away, despite the fact that something in her disagrees and wants the opposite. What the hell? Stupid libido; it was really no respecter of persons. "I'm sorry I think you are mistaking me for someone else."And she's off like a bullet before the commander can form a proper response.

She feels those silver stormy eyes burn into her back as she scurries away.

0oOoOoOo

AN:So? What did you all think? Please let me know! I agonised for three weeks on this chapter and it still feels like my poor writing skills are letting me down when it comes to " the meeting" scene.

So please please review I want your opinions not only on this but what you think Berdine has been keeping from Aedan about herself and her relation to Costia. And I also want you to let me know if you want me to kill Gustus like in the series or if you want him to live. I'm a little torn myself.

Oh and if any of you are interested on seeing a visual representation of this chapter I recomend looking at AvalonParry DeviantArt, the fan art, was created by my causin.


	4. Chapter 4

**Previously.**

_After four strong breaths, Aedan puts her ear near the commanders mouth and watch's her chest for any breathing movement._  
_Check's the pulse for signs of life. _

_Repeat the cycle over and over again._

_Until finally._

_The Commanders chest –which gave no discernable movements before –expanded greedily. She sucked in several portions of air as though she had been holding her breath and for a few, terrifying seconds, she shivered violently, choked and murmured several words that made no sense. The words subsided into a few broken phrases before a healthy, pinkish hue returned to her lips and cheeks. Sweat broke across her brow and her hands remained balled into fists. She seemed troubled, her face in a grimace, as she struggled with something unseen._

_Aedan just going try and breathe herself now, cause that was a freaky experience, and then the commander is staring at her in surprise, and regotnition ?_

_"Costia," she says._

_Aedan blinked, because, okay…what? "Sorry ?" And then Aedan finds herself once again on the other end of the most intense and concentrated stare. That gaze is so dark and warm; it makes her heart thrum in curiosity, which, um, that's something new. They shine with such longing and seem to see beyond her and why did those eyes seem familiar?_

_Aedan inches away, despite the fact that something in her disagrees and wants the opposite. What the hell? Stupid libido; it was really no respecter of persons. "I'm sorry I think you are mistaking me for someone else."And she's off like a bullet before the commander can form a proper response._

_She feels those silver stormy eyes burn into her back as she scurries away._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0  
**

_Like a chest of hidden gold_  
_Shimmers in the depths below_  
_We are, we are, the treasures that_  
_They hide_  
_Like the sun that saves the night_  
_Bursting through a darkened sky_  
_We are, we are, soldiers of the light_

_And we will glow_  
_Oh, oh, oh_

_We are fire, we are fire_  
_And our love will burn_  
_The flame will never die_  
_We are brighter, we are brighter_  
_Let's show 'em how we light up_  
_Tonight_

_Oh, oh, oh, you and I we're soldiers of light_

**Chapter 4: Heirs of Fire**

Aedan barely makes it more then a few steps before she suddenly finds herself frozen on the spot.

She frowns, and her mood instantly dips even lower as a worn and pale looking Marcus Kane fills up her Vision. There are grim age lines etched into his face, and his hair is thinning. Age is biting into him and it doesn't look flattering.

Never thought it would anyway. Never really cared, Aedan thinks as she shakes her head and looks at him with a blank and expectant look.

He says, "Aedan."

"Councilman Kane," Aedan greets him back with stiff formality. She pulls at the end of her dirty royal blue waron makeshift gloves and begins to twists the fabric loose from her now clawed bloody hands . "Still alive I see , pity."

Kane doesn't say anything at first. He looks belligerently crestfallen. It's almost as if he doesn't know who he is or who she is. He blinks slowly and focuses on her, then he explains, "I was told you were dead. But you here? You survived."

Aedan keeps her face carefully blank and calm. Kane's been on her shit list for years now. She could feel the flames liking at her restraint and it was taking every ounce of her strength to keep them at bay. "Yes. Sorry to disappoint ." she says, rather crossly.

"I, I'm not , I'm so happy your alive, I uh—" Kane rubs at the back of his neck uncomfortably. He's wearing something that resembles his old guard uniform, mines the protective jacket and tazer. The fucker still looks somehow more chaotically put together then the others surrounding him.

She could almost respect the man for being so poised, if you know, it was anyone else but Kane and if she could find it in herself to give a fuck about respecting anyone again.

Aedan maintains her silence.

"I know that nothing I could ever do or say will make up for all the wrongs I've done against you and to you, but, I would like to try," Kane says with unsettling sincerity. He fidgets and fumbles with his atomic gun. His brown eyes are different—he doesn't seem—something's not the same. "I want to tell you that I am sorry. I'm so sorry for how I treated you and all the things I did. For my neglect and abandonment of you. I pray to God every night that He delivers you from the pain or trauma I charged you with. There are things I wish I could take back and I know I can't but you have to know that I—" he takes a step towards her.

"Enough!" Aedan suddenly cuts him off. Taking a step back, away from him. She can't take this. She can't play this game with him. This fucking asshole thinks he can play her like some naive little girl. Like he had her parents. Aedan glares at him with all the hearted in her heart.

Kane just stares at her with a small measure of sadness and reserve. He fumbles with the strap of his rifle again. It makes him look vulnerable and human.

Aedan despises the gesture. This isn't who he really is. He must want something. He has to be playing some sort of angle. "Who are trying fool with this shit Kane?" she demands.

"Aedan listen please," Kane almost begs and Aedan could almost laugh at that request. He clears his throat and tugs at the collar of his shirt. He's growing paler by the second. "I know the anger you must have towards me—"

"You don't fucking know a thing, Kane" Aedan calmly corrects.

"You're right," Kane quickly agrees. "But please, Aedan—I'm trying to tell you -"

"Trying tell me what?" she hisses impatiently as she angrily twists the material warped around her other hand free. Trying to keep them from attacking him "I don't get this act you're trying to pull. Anyway even If you are sorry and you want forgiveness. Then your out of luck Kane, beacouse I have non to offer you. Zero."

"It's not about forgiveness. I know something's are unforgivable but- ," Kane promises, desperately. His eyes are swollen with despair and it makes Aedan sick. "There's something I need to tell you. There's something you should know—something I should have said so long ago. There is a reason I did what I di-"

"General?"Her second walks over, cutting him off abruptly."The comannder wants a word" Berdine informed her eyeing Kane like a lioness eyes prey. All her warriors have their hands already on their swords, knives and bows ready to be drawn at a moments notice.

"I have to go," Aedan says as she flicks her gaze over to her second. "I don't have time to play pretend with you. You should try this performance on someone else because you're not fooling me."

"It's not a performance!" Kane cries, and oh God, are those real tears? "You're father, was the closest I ever had to a brother and you were the closest thing I ever had to a daughter and I didn't want—"

Aedan is moving and in the next second she slams her fist into his face, causing Kane to startle backwards and fall. "Don't you fucking dare," she warns coldly as she glares at him. "Don't, you fucking, dare."

Kane swallows quietly as his eyes flicker around the hundred and forty nine swords that were drawn in unison and are now pointed in his direction, ready to cut to a thousand prices at her say so and go sad. Tears slid down his hollow cheeks as he robotically fumbles unsure if he should stand, unsure if he can, with sharp blades threatening to gut him at the smallest sign of movement. "I'm sorry. Aedan, please. I'm so sorry. Give me a chance to—"

"Stay the fuck away from me Kane," Aedan monotonously utters and kills the conversation by turning her back to him and walking away. Her fingers tremble and curl tightly towards her palm before she exhales.

The commander is waiting on the other side exactly where Aedan had left her only seconds ago. Only now she was standing tall and strong as if she had never fallen in the first place, hooded eyes trailing Aedan's every step with a measuring look. Shifting to the swords still drawn in her defence and narrow thoughtfully before looking away.

"Berdine , Gather the men we should leave immediately," The commander orders them her eyes fixed on Berdine alone ignoring Aedan's presence completely "We have no idea if reinforcement is meant to arrive soon, and we definitely don't want to meet them."

At the command Berdine uncrosses her arms and grabs her elbow.

"What happened? Who was that? Why did he effect you so much?"

"Nothing. Do as the commander ordered, I'll help with the wounded," Aedan requests as she turns towards the figure with a red jacket a few feet from her who was on her knees, holding to what appeared to be a dead body.

Berdine gracefully follows the order without so much as another question and Aedan is so damn greatful, that even the suspicion about her second are silenced for the moment.

Aedan frowns as she closes in even nearer and manages to get a clear view of the girls face and that of the body she cradles.

Aedan chokes in surprise . "Raven ! Fin—"

Immediately, Ravens head snaps up to look at her and breathes out an incredulous, "Aedan ?!" and before Aedan can blink, she is practically tackled by Raven. She hugs Aedan tightly, and Aedan once again finds herself putting a comforting hand against the back of a dark head of hair for the second time in same day. , her chest heaving against mine. "I don't believe it ," she whispers to me.

"Damn it, Cale - we didn't even know if you were alive." Her voice weak and near to the breaking point like Aedan had only heard once before and for one moment, she was the child-Raven once more, the girl that had screamed for her help when one of Nigel's men had attacked her. The girl who griped her hand tightly and refused to let go after she broke said attackers knee and send them crashing head first into the wall of the ship.

Aedan pull back to look at her, still holding her arms, and the sight of of those pain filled eyes tells Aedan everything she need to know. Aedan gaze shifts to fin's still body in disbelief, taking in the muddy cloth and rope warped around him, her sharp mind putting two and two together at lightning speed. The mascara, it...Fin?

That One moment of realisation was enough to bridge the distance and once more fold Raven into her arms again despite her discomfort. "I'm so sorry, Raven ," She whispered as she held her close as she breaks down. "Pshhh, don't cry."

Her green eyes narrowed thoughtfully her mind both determined and lined with worry, things were worse then she had thought. This alliance would break before it was even properly forged.

Her observations only proved her thoughts true.

Because She hadn't failed to notice the price of 'the too frail to be truly called peace' in the way that Clarke griffins vacant eyes stared at what wasn't there, the way she absently still scrubbed at her hands even though they were clean. Like it was taking all her energy to remain standing. Her sanity no doubt balanced on a frail edge- dancing along a cliff.

In the way Raven whispered tearfully at her side, barely suppressing the pained screams of loss that wanted to claw out of her and glared hatefully at the sky princess as she told Aedan what had happened. How she had murdered Fin.

Aedan stood by her the whole time, not moving from her side, watching, waiting for her to crumple, ready to catch her when she did and prevent her from doing something she could never take back.

A pang ran down her spine and heat curled in her stomach. Aedan didn't want her to have to be alone when she finally collapsed in on herself like a dying star. So she stood by her waiting.

And because of that she din't fail to notice when the commanders first warrior gaze lingered on Ravens pained filled face a fraction of second longer then the others as he searched for and removed weapon after weapon his dark eyes searching her face, judging, weighing, testing and swifter then Aedan would have expected from a man his size planted the poison in Ravens pocket as he removed the last of her knives at the gate.

888

As soon as they made to Tondc and were out of sight of the villages patrols, and past the gathered crowds Lexa jumped off her horse, her boots disturbing the earth. A whirlwind of dust wafted in her wake.

She walked haphazardly away from them and into the darkness of the underground tunnels where the unity feast would be held, pushing at the muddy drenched cloak as though struggling against a beast. She made several attempts to unclasp it, succeeding with a howl as she nearly threw the garment to the ground.

The moment she was free of it however, Lexa started trembling all over. She knew that this could Only be shock, pure and simple. Slowly, like a frail elder, she sat down on the chair closest to her and tried to regain control over herself.

Unacceptable, that this would affect her so much. She had experienced far worse over the years, but she simply hadn´t anticipated this. She had not anticipated this. This newcomer, this girl who held  
Such a strong resemblance to Costia that Lexa had mistaken her for her long lost love at first glance.

She could not suppress the lone tear that run down the right side of her check, wondering at the same time if it wasn´t just that the girl resembled to Costia that was turning her nerves upside down, but the emotions those feral green eyes had conjured upon her restoration to conicisnes . She never cried. She hadn´t done so for the two years since Costa's death , and she had believed herself to be completely dried up inside, like a desert.

After what felt like a long time, she forced herself up in a standing position. She had to think! She couldn´t let herself collapse like this – it was too dangerous!

She remained there hidden in the darkness and did not come out until the dragon within her is silenced and her unfeeling walls are rebuild barring all unwanted emotions away.

The Commandor then calls for Berdine's presence.

And it's not long before Lexa hears the grinding of rustic steel as the door behind her opens and Berdines footsteps as the older woman walked across the room, to stand behind her.

"Heda ," Berdine greets with the traditional salute. Lexa can hear the questioning in her voice."You summoned me."

The older woman flinches when Lexa turns to her, her stormy silver eyes gleaming dangerously beneath her brows.

Berdine is silenced before she can even began to speak by her Heda's furious gaze and is the first to lower her's to the floor, where, coincidently, her eyes land on the cloak, bloody and torn from the earlier battle that had almost taken the Commanders life.

Would have taken the commanders life. If not for Aedan.

Which Berdine knows is the reason she has been summoned for an audience with the Commander for the first time in two years.

"Do you know why I have asked for you." The commander drones with an eerie calm that sets of alarms in Berdine head and icy fear in veins.

Nervously, Berdine gives voice to her thoughts,"I hear we are to ride for the mountain with the Sky army, after the affirmation of the alliance takes place in ton DC ...,"The Tre Kru captain summarises hesitantly before continuing without regret or apology, "I assume you summoned me because you wish to speak to me of Aedan."

Lexa hears something expectant in Berdine's voice. It reveals the penetrating intelligence of one of her most talented captains, her ability to predict outcomes from a limited number of facts. It also gives Lexa pause, despite the overwhelming need to follow her wrath.

"Yes, the enemy you allowed to become commander to the fifth regiment. Is a pressing concern for me," Lexa snarls.

"Not quite." Berdine's squints as she looks up at the ray of sun coming from the bared window as if she was trying to discern the time from it. "The most pressing concern is the mountain, and the blood of our people being drained as we speak. This war has dragged on for far too long and it's time we end it once and for all." Berdine counters with a smile but her eyes hold no real mirth.  
"Is that not why you aligned yourself with the sky kru to begin with ."

"Be careful captain. My leniency has it's limits! We are not here to discuss my alliances! We are here to discuss yours. We here to discuss the fact that you have been harbouring a one of the sky Kru for many moons and thought it fit not to inform me. Even when you were aware that her people were responsible for the death of Anya's second and her only healer!" The Commander nearly screams, prompting Berdine to step back at the emotion showing in her usually emotionless Heda."You will explain to me. Who she is. **How** she come to be here. **How** she come be in **your** care. **How** she came to take **Costia's** place. You will tell me every detail leading to the events of the battle we just survived and you will leave nothing out". The command was quiet, but it held a venom that promised Berdine intense pain if the Commanders demand wasn't met accordingly.

And so, steeling herself for whatever reaction Her Heda would have, she began to tell the story of Aedan Cale.

"The day the sky people fell. Denne brought news that while hunting she had seen something fall within our borders. We send seekers. They searched the area and found nothing but bits of the ship, an abnormal amount of blood and a trail that lead deeper into the dark woods. We scouted the area, but the trail ran cold. I'm ashamed to say that it took us awhile to realise we had been tricked and we were going around in circles."

"She alluded all of your seekers, even though she was wounded?" Lexa was surprised by this. Sky People had always been easy pickings for Anya's seekers. Reports had made it apparent that the sky people had little few survival skills, they had no weaponry or combat training, no hunting skills, no tracking or evasive skills, made obvious by the fact that they always travelled in groups, despite the fact that doing so made them more of a target, finding safety in numbers. And guns, their only defence. And even with those they lacked training. So, what made this one different from the others? "For how long did she she allude your seekers?"

Berdine's mouth fidgets indecisively wanting to answer the commander, but to embarrassed and to reluctant to admit that one girl had evaded and gotten the better of her and her seekers at every turn for months and gotten 'captured' only because she had let herself be captured to ensure the safety of Berdine's own children.

"How long Captain" The commander hisses when Berdine takes to long answering her, an edge to her voice that spook volumes about her patients.

"Months".

"Months?"Lexa Repeated eyebrow raised in disbelief and outrage.

Berdine only nodded.

"What finally resulted in her capture."

"Her compassion."Berdine whispers so quietly in a soft smile that spook of a deep fondness for the girl in questions." After months of searching, our search for her yielded no results, it wasn't until, one day when reports came that reapers were attacking our borders and I road off with Diaval and some of our best warriors to fight of their attack and charged Denne with the safety of my children that she reviled herself."Berdine closed her eyes shuddering at the memory of what had almost happen." She was in the woods that day, no doubt searching for herbs and other native plants to supplement her food stock. She probably heard the first gunshot and Noah's screams from a distance and reacted without thinking " Berdine stopped then, not to catch her breath but to collect herself emotionally, because even now after all these months she could remember the exact patterns her daughters blood had made in the dirt beneath her where she had almost bleed to death.

"What happened to Noah ?" The commander asks , her tone the soft octave one that had only been bestowed on Costia.

"They shot her, the mountain men, a single rifle round inches from her heart. Then they turned around tried to put Beliv down like some animal." Growled harshly the taste of blood in her mouth.

The commanders next question. "And afterwards?"

"When I finally was able to locate Denne and track my children down all I saw was Noah bleeding out into the dirt, my Beliv and Thalia by her side and a blooded finger standing over them like a shadow of death, blade in hand, two dead mountain guards socked in their own blood. Once I Had her surround I did not even stop to truly take in the situation. I command Diaval to retrieve my children and kill her."

" Then why is she still here. What prevented you."

" At first, it was the swiftness in which she disarmed Diaval and stood protectively in front of my children as if it was me that was the threat to them. But really It was Beliv. He defended her in a way I had only seen him do for one of our own and explained that she had no part in their abduction and that she had in fact saved them. She somehow managed to gain Beliv's trust, I don't now how or by what means, but she did-Beliv refused to revel what transpired, but whatever she did or said, it was enough for Beliv's to allow her near enough to seal Noah's wounds. "

"A blood debt. Is this the reason you did not inform me of her presence."

"Not the only reason. Commander, the mountain men, they carried with them several articles of clothing, personnel trinkets and weapons that appeared to belong to the sky people." Berdine posses for a second unsure if she should voice to her thoughts before making a decision to do so anyway" I believe their goal was to incriminate the sky people in my children's murder, make it appear as if they were responsible."

"They anticipated our reaction to the sky kru's invasion of our land," Lexa hisses again, the gears inside her head turning as wave upon wave of realisation pounds at her head. "They attempted ignite war, not knowing that war was already brewing, in order to shorten our numbers, and move against one of the Divisions, collecting our numbers for the blood feast that would be used to heal them, my Division especially would have been icing on the cake."

"Yes. That is what I believe as we'll"

"In the envoy you sent, you dint divulge the means in which you survived the attack, only that the _outsider_ played part in it. Explain it me now".

"It's difficult to explain"

"Attempt to do so anyway Captain because you are not leaving here until you do"Lexa promised her, she was ice again. Cold, hard, unyielding.

" She created a chemical formula, something she called Hydrofluoric acid capable of dissolving many materials, like the armer the mountain men were to protect themselves when they come out of there cave, her creation was something that was beyond my grasp of understanding. It was however very successfully. It gave an advantage over our enemy. It allowed us to lure them into a trap and defeat them from a distance, without being in close combat."

"For all of this to have been possible, you had to have known they were coming." Lexa spoke contemplating the information given to her." How?"

"Aedan."

"Elaborate"

"The same day that you sent word of the failed attack on the sky kru and Anya's disappearance. I was informed not long afterwards by Beliv that Aedan had found out and had left in order to find out if there was any survivors among those she came down with and that she would not be coming back."

The commander interrupted her then."Are telling me that the girl abounded her responsibility as leader and still you all chose to follow her? This is ridiculous!"

"No, Aedan stumbled upon the trial stones that Costia set up for her successor without realising what she was doing. She refused the mantle of leader upon understanding what she had done. She had even the most definite of us on our knees ready to swear our allegiance to her and her response was 'no, thank you'. It wasn't until she left us and encountered the mountain men again and through them, obtained information on their plans to advance on Polis and saved us that she finally accepted the position of leader. Not that any one of us in the fifth division left her any choice, our blood debt to her ensured that her every word was law, whether she wanted it or not."

"As they should a blood debt is not something that should ever be taken lightly" The Commander sighs in understanding turning her back to Berdine for a moment, however as she turns back around Berdine sees her gaze harden" However this blood debt does not mean that she will be my general or my second. Whatever your hopes or plans Caption, it will not happen. She is not Costia."

"No she not. she not Costia," she said softly. "She's Costia's sister."

For one moment, the silence was absolute.

"No," Lexa said, not recognizing her own voice. "No. You lie."

"No. Though he did not tell at the time we meet, Costia's father was once one of the sky kru, sent here to die as punishment for breaking the rule's of his people. The day we meet was just after reaper battle in polis. I was wounded and left in the Filed, mistaken for dead he saved my life and introduced himself as nomad hailing from the red deserts keep. During my time of healing we spent a night together, we were suffering, me over the death of so many of my people and he confessed over the loss of his life mate and daughter, Aedan. We sought comfort in each other. The next day we parted ways. And I would not find out until moths later that I had fallen pregnant with Costia. Aedan bears the same name Cale confided was his first born, the same red bird like birth mark in her wrist as her father, the same resemble to her father as Costia."

The commander marches into Beridnes personals space until only an inch of space stands between them and Berdine can clearly see the brewing thunderstorm in her eyes that threatens to strike her down. " If you believe the spinning of this tale will convince me to accept this _outsider_,_ invader_, one of the sky kru. Who if I need remind you, are responsible for the murder of three hundred of my warriors and left orphans and widows In the massacrer that took place only days ago. As my general, as my second" The commander snarls in a low tone." Then you have never been more mistaken in your life, then you are this day Captain ".

A rare ire flashes across Berdine's face. Her reply is calculating and it hits Lexa squarely in the gut, "Can you honestly say that you haven't left orphans and widows in your wake? What price did we have to pay for peace between the twelve clans? Do you not remember? We had to slaughter our own to save many more. Children died in the villages we razed. We're all murderers when at war, Heda, one way or the other. My daughters death was proof of that.  
Whether Berdine's manipulation is deliberate or not, Lexa does not care, because her words ignite a rage that sees her sword unsheathed from her scabbard. She strikes blindly and Berdine weaves out of the way. She plunges her sword forward, but fails. Berdine allows the assault, perhaps aware that Lexa's grief has incapacitated her technique. That and the fact shes Costia's mother ensures that unless she does something truly unforgivable,the commander will never strike a killing blow in her direction.

After several, harrowing minutes, Lexa drops the sword with an exasperated shout and Berdine leans against a feast table, relieved. One can see that her breath has already come dangerously short.  
"What are you trying to do?" Lexa cries, wringing her hands.

Exhaustion draws deep lines on her face, accenting the barely now visible scar that runs just below the commanders jawline under the lobo of her ear and tipped towards the right side of her face which will remind both of Costia's demise. Suddenly, Berdine's face softens. There is pity there. They both know that for either of them, there will be no forgetting.

"I'm putting this into perspective," Berdine says, softly. "For any of us to gain any measure of sanity, for us to lay any ghosts to rest, for us to think clearly about the future of our people and to succeed in that endeavour, we must think of peace with the sky people, one that will last, not just for now, but in long term." Berdine approaches cautiously, stopping when she sees the intent in Lexa's eyes. "You know this, Commander," she insists. "You and Costia have always known this. It's the reason my Costia surrender her role of leadership in the forming of the coalition and became your second, entrusted you our regiment for safekeeping. And the only way you will retain that peace is with the acceptance of Aedan as the General of the fifth patalion. Blood demands blood, and the fifth owe her every drop of ours. So do you."  
Berdine has more to say, wants to say more but she sees as Lexa trembles with emotions, conveying with her body language that any more words would bring the sword down Berdine's head. Breathing heavily for several seconds, she finally sheathes her sword, turns, and walks away.

A long forgotten memory flashing through her mind as she blindly navigates the maze like tunnels.

888

_"Costia."_

_"Costia. Are you alright?" Eleven summers old Lexa Calls out in the dark as walks into the dark tent and hears her best friend crying again._

_When she doesn't respond Lexa strides up to the bed the red head rests on and touches her shoulder. She awakens instantly. Those familiar blue eyes snap open, and for a heart stoping moment Lexa has the strangest sensation that staring back at her is not her Costia, but another." Lexa, how did your first day training with Anya go" Lexa response at the question is a pointed look that causes Costia to look away._

_"I dreamt about her again." The nine year old whispers lowly._

_"Her?" Lexa whispers back. "The one you call the other?"_

_Costia and Lexa never discussed what she dreams of. She tries to pretend during the day that the night is not a haunted time for her. But Lexa knows her well. Lexa knows that she fears the night. So Lexa never asked, never pushed._

_But, tonight She found herself needing to know, because there is a look of pure fear on her face, of such pain, the likes of which Lexa had never seen before in all the time Lexa had know Costia._

_It makes Lexa think that tonight she dreamt of something else, something terrible._

_"Where is she? What's her life like? Why do always wake up crying? What happens in them" Lexa ask._

_"She is.. I don't know where she is. When she's not surround by people that are hurting her. She's surrounded by stars, but it isn't magic for her. All she knows is the taste of blood. Nothing feels right to her. She's so lonely, and someone abandoned her, left her all alone. Tonight men came for her, and they tried.. Tried to..." Lexa could see Costia struggle to speak the words that were obviously so repugnant to her and failing. Not that Lexa need her to say them. She new we'll what they must have tried to do. When her home had been invaded she had seen things, things she wishes her still innocent young friend will never see. "but she overpowered them. She wanted to kill them, make their lifeblood spill on to the floor. But she doesn't ._

_Lexa listens to Costia with fascination she can not explain as the tale continues to spills out of her at rapid speed. When she is finished Lexa ask her heart beating erectly "But she's okay now?"_

_Costia nods. "I think so." Her voice is a little wobbly." I...I think, she's free now. She got away from them, from her. Someday Lexa, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday we'll find her. And together will unite the twelve clans. She'll help bring the peace that we always dreamed of. The kind of that won't just last for a few years, but for generations. Beacouse she's strong Lexa, in here "Costia place her palm against Lexa's heart "And here" she points to her own temple" She's fighter, a surviver, a protecter, a leader, like you."_

_"So are you, your a leader too." baffled both by the description of the mystery girl and what she's hearing. Costia's words hold a ring of prophecy to them that unnerved her._

_"No, not like her. Not like you" she refutes with a shake of her head."_

_" Costia we don't even know who this girl is. We don't even if she's even real."_

_"She's real,"Costia answers a veiled look in her eyes" And I know who she is. Father told me."_

_Lexa's frowns ' how did Costia's father know the mystery entity that plagued Costia's mind." So who is she?"_

_"I can't tell you yet."_

_"Why."_

_"You wouldn't understand."_

_"You know I hate when you say that."_

_"I know." She replayed blue eyes dancing with amusement. "I'll tell you when we meat her." She smile a secret smile that shows she knows very well that not knowing will irritate Lexa more than anything" If we survive these bloody clan wars that is."_

_"No one will ever hurt you Costia ." Lexa swears._

_"I know. And you're here now."_

_"Not for long. Your mother won't like it if I stay too long and maybe she'll say I can't see you at all."_

_"She won't." Costia's says, and her faith is touching. "She knows I love you, and that I feel safe only when you are here."_

_Lexa feels herself blush. "You have Over twenty warriors that make sure to keep you safe just outside your tent." She says, scorning emotion the way all raised to lead often do._

_"I need you Lexa " She says, grabbing her hand. "Stay, please?"_

_Unable to say no to Costia like always. Lexa stays. She covers them with thick furs and holds onto Costia tightly. And for the first time since Costia's night terrors began, she did not have another that night._

_But since that night Lexa never stopped wondering about the mystery girl Costia cried for._

_Wondering if what Costia prophesied would ever actually come to pass._

888

Lexa feels her eyes burn. Her throat is painful and it seems she has forgotten how to swallow. Her nostrils flare at the smell of burning corpses.

The residents of Indra's village have the pyre burning in the center of the village where every member of her regiment gathers and many doubt that the village will smell the same again. It stinks of death, of their tradition that also stains the sky. Those left behind will sift through the ashes of their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers and bond mates. The ground here will be tainted; the memories forever too painful.  
And yet…the scene unfolding before her presses urgently into her senses. Members of the Fourth lower the last of the body's onto the pyre.

The last body to be placed among the dead is that of Fin of the sky people. Executioner and executed to burn as one.

The one the sky warrior Bellamy had called Aedan with pure reverence in his tone...Costia sister, stands next too and holds the female sky warrior Raven who presses calloused hands against her eyelids to stop herself from crying openly.

Costia's sister... This was the part of Costia that had been missing, The other she would often dream of. The little girl with hair like fire and eyes like the sea and a face like love.

The Comanndor takes great pains to insure her gaze never wanders towards the flame like hair in the corner of her eye.

When the officer presiding over the ceremony summons her, Lexa steps forward, takes the burning torch from his hand, and turns to heap it on the massive pyre.

But at the last minute. She stops, and turns to her right where Clarke of the sky people stands and summons her to do it instead. The gesture is both a show of respect and a test. She wants to see if the shakiru's resolves will remain true.

But as the shakiru steps forward with trepidation in her haunted blue eyes and every step, to take the torch from Lexa's hand, Involuntarily, Lexa's eyes shift and freeze into an arresting shade of feral green, mistrust and fear crawling over her irises. Inside, she feels suddenly confined, more like a prisoner than the mistress of a fortress she has built as her defence.

Lexa feels as though she is in the deep twilight of her years, that she is hobbling through the last of her breaths.

Finally when those feral eyes release Lexa,

Indra's regiment quietly begin to leaves until there is only Lexa and Shakiru.

The last goodbye is always the most painful. Lexa know the pain of it we'll.

She stares at ashes and words she doesn't mean to speak spill out of mouth.

"I lost someone special to me too. Her name was Costia. "

Clarke of the sky people turns to her with a startled and surprised look, but says nothing, so Lexa continues "She was captured by the Ice Nation, who's Queen believed she knew my secrets, cause she was mine. They tortured her, killed her, cut off her head."

"I'm sorry" Shakiru whispers

"I thought I'd never get over the pain, but I did," not even acknowledging the other girls sympathy.

"How?" she hears the blond ask almost pleadingly .

"By recognizing it for what it is…weakness."

"What is?" Clarke finishes for her, an edge in her voice. "Love?"

Lexa nods her eyes stony, locked onto the red hair figure walking away from the pyre.

oO0oO0oO0oO0oOo

AN: Sooo, who saw that coming? The next chapter should take about a week, hopefully-please make me happy and review!


	5. Chapter 5

**Previously.**

_As the shakiru steps forward with trepidation in her haunted blue eyes and every step, to take the torch from Lexa's hand, Involuntarily, Lexa's eyes shift and freeze into an arresting shade of feral green, mistrust and fear crawling over her irises. Inside, she feels suddenly confined, more like a prisoner than the mistress of a fortress she has built as her defence._

_Lexa feels as though she is in the deep twilight of her years, that she is hobbling through the last of her breaths._

_Finally when those feral eyes release Lexa,_

_Indra's regiment quietly begin to leaves until there is only Lexa and Shakiru._

_The last goodbye is always the most painful. Lexa know the pain of it we'll._

_She stares at ashes._

_"I lost someone special to me too. Her name was Costia. "_

_Clarke of the sky people turns to her with a startled and surprised look, but says nothing, so Lexa continues "She was captured by the Ice Nation, who's Queen believed she knew my secrets, cause she was mine. They tortured her, killed her, cut off her head."_

_"I'm sorry" Shakiru whispers_

_"I thought I'd never get over the pain, but I did," not even acknowledging the other girls sympathy._

_"How?" she hears the blond ask almost pleadingly ._

_"By recognizing it for what it is…weakness."_

_"What is?" Clarke finishes for her, an edge in her voice. "Love?"_

_Lexa nods her eyes stony, locked onto the red hair figure walking away from the pyre._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 **

_I was born in a thunderstorm  
I grew up overnight  
I played alone  
I'm playing on my own  
I survived_

_Hey_  
_I wanted everything I never had_  
_Like the love that comes with light_  
_I wore envy and I hated that_  
_But I survived_

_I had a one-way ticket to a place where all the demons go_  
_Where the wind don't change_  
_And nothing in the ground can ever grow_  
_No hope, just lies_  
_And you're taught to cry in your pillow_  
_But I'll survive_

_I'm still breathing_  
_I'm alive_

**Chapter 5: The Poisoned Chalice**

Aedan is sitting only a few feet in front of the now burnt out pyre, far enough that the eyes that had been trailing her every movement can no longer see her, her presence veiled by the shadows of the darkening night, but close enough for her to see them. She sat there watching, thinking, planning and waiting for Berdine to round the corner she had vanished from since the Commander had summoned her. Sleep was elusive and when she did sleep, she was often plagued by nightmares. Her mind simply did not want to shut down. There are grounders everywhere and Aedan eyes trail over every one of the armed men belonging to her and has to admit that she never thought she'd be one of them, she had always seen herself as to much of a lone wolf, too untrusting, too independent, to be a part of anything, but she had a feeling that since the very moment she had crashed into the all to familiar dark clearing in the dark woods that this,here, was exactly where she was meant to be. Every new encounter feels just like a peace of a puzzle that clicks into place. Aedan grins darkly and fiddles with the sword she pulled from the stones, and made her like King Arthur, a leader of the people before her, attempting not to give her position away by laughing at the irony and ridiculousness of it all . The tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table had been one of her favourite bed time stories. But every time her father read her the tale she would end up feeling angry and disappointed, envisioning a new ending for her favourite story. Where in the king lived and the dream of Camelot prospered. But her favourite story had not been something she had thought about for many years, not since the day she had come across the trial stones in polis and made her self into something she never wanted to be. A leader. These people were her's now. Weather she wanted it or not they were now her responsibility, each life hers to protect and each death hers to bear. She doesn't like it when someone tries to hurt what's hers, which is why she doesn't feel guilty at all about what she's about to do. She glances around and spots Bellamy, headed straight for her, and she quickly conceals the vile of poison she had lifted of Raven without her knowledge into her pocket and smiles at him in greeting.

Bellamy steps right in front of her as she tucks her Sword in the holster behind her, feigning an angelic pose.  
"Oh no," Bellamy says. "You've got that look again."

Aedan frowns innocently. "What look?"

"The one that promises chaos, and endless torment to whoever has invoked your fury. " Bellemy grunts. His new bruises making his very movement painful as he sits beside her.

Aedan snorts and rolls her eyes. "Don't be so paranoid. Why would I be sitting here if wanted to torment someone?" she says as she turns to face him.

He eyes her intently for a few moments without saying anything"You okay, Aed?" Bellamy says as his dark eyes examine her sprained wrist. The very one she hadn't even been aware was sprained because she'd been too busy thinking about the commanders eyes of all things.

He reached a hand over and took Aedan smaller hand in his own—had it been anyone else, he was sure she would have flinched out of instinct. But she knew it was him and merely looked directly into his eyes, gazing at the soul deep tiredness that mirrored her own.

Aedan nods uneasily.

Bellamy sighs. "No you're not," he says matter-of-factly.

"Then why ask?" Aedan grumbles.

"Because contrary to what you may think or how I may have behaved during our last year on the ark, I care about you," Bellemy grouches." And I know how little the word means to you but, I am sorry Aed, for not being there..."

Aedan dismisses him with the wave of her hand. "You worry too much,I told you it was fine you had just lost two of the people you loved most in the world. If anyone can understand that it's me." Bellamy cringed inwardly at the pain that still prices his heart every time he recalls the happening of that day. Now however the pain is laced with a deep regret over the abandonment of the one person who stood by him in all things.

Aedan looked at him with a frown. her piercing and eerie eyes watched him intently to make sure that he hid nothing from her. "This has been haunting you, for quit a while hasn't it?" For one moment, he withstood her gaze, but then he lowered his head, nodding slowly.

When he turned his head away from her gaze, she reached out and cupped his cheek. Her eyebrows were pinched together in a frown as she traced the soft pad of her thumb around the spot just below his eye, disliking the discoloration there. Bellamy didn't even flinch at how close she came to actually poking his eye—he could only smile at the obviously concern written plainly across her face.

"I know," he said with a smile, reach up slowly to capture her wrist. "I need more sleep, right?"

"Yes," Aedan agreed without hesitation, her frown intensifying as she ran her eyes up and down his body and she didn't like what she was seeing. He was clearly unhealthy. The old, threadbare flannel shirt and the even more scruffy and worn cargo pants did an effective job of hiding just how unhealthy, but Belleamy seemed to be unaware that… but he was always so neglectful of himself.

While Adean was deep in thought, pondering over the things that had happened since the last time they saw each other over a year ago, she rested her head onto his shoulder and her hand was absently twirling the vile of poison in her pocket.

"Aedan."

"Yes"

"How in the hell did you manage to become a leader of the largest grounder army in less then year? Ride in on a flying horse and challenge their Leader to a sword duel?"

"No" she answered in casual tone " I just pulled a sword from a stone."

Bellamy blinked at her, his face incredulous with disbelief, then shook his head in silent bemusement "Only you Aedan, only you..

"Yeah. I know, I'm Amazing. "She sniffed."Now, about this feast tonight, something is going to happen that you might not like or approve of, but what ever happens I need you to trust me and when the commander calls for me do not interfere …"

"No."

Aedan sighs. "Bellamy…"

"I'm not a goddamn fool, Aed. Nobody knows you as well as I do, something has been brewing in that big brain of yours since the moment we entered the gates, and don't think for a seconds that I haven't noticed you watching that grounder like a a hawk since we did, or that you vanished seconds after he did. What're you up to anyway? What about him has you plotting at a dangerous time like this. He's the commanders first warrior. A move against him could get you killed !" Bellamy continues to rant.

"Uh-huh. Listen,I know what I'm doing. I need you, I need to know that when the time comes you will trust me and follow my lead like you used to tonight, kay? You're my best friend and I need your support. So I'm asking you to trust that I know what I'm doing and not question or interfere with what is going to happen. I need your word before I tell you what this is about." Aedan says in a quit but firm voice that conveys how serious this is.

"I do, you know I do."Bellamy scowls. "I've always trusted you, Aedan, but-"Aedan shakes her head at him" Fine! You have my word I will not interfere." He huffs and shakes his head. "Now tell me what the hell this is about," he mutters.

After another moment of silence in which Aedan thought Bellamy to be calm enough she retracted the vile from her pocket and held it up for him to see" This."

Bellamy stilled, understanding flooding his features." Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes." Carefully and weary of her surrounding as she spook" he planted on Raven at the gate. I lifted it from her."

Her friend hissed, the fury in his eyes as they locked on the warrior she had been spying on alerting her to his intentions and ready to stop him as his muscles tensed for attack with a strong hand to pull him back down."No!"

"Aed! He needs to pay for this!" He growled angrily at her with gritted teeth but did not struggle in her grip" Do you know how this would have played out if something went wrong and they found the vile on her they w-" he stops mid sentence removes his burning eyes from the warrior in question and snapped his head in her direction with a look of dread and horrified understanding."He.. Tonight-"

"Yes." Aedan confirms with a calm nod of her head" and he will pay for it believe me, I already have plan in place." She paused her head tilting in thought."The only question is, do I want the price to be his life."

"What do you mean?"

"His aim is to break this alliance before it's forged, to protect his commander from what he thinks is a threat to her life and rule." Aedan signs indecision and fury warring inside her" If exposed his life is forfeited, and must be taken by the commanders hand herself. And that kind act can easily turn a leader into a tyrant. One leader is already standing at the edge of a cliff." She told him her head tilted in contemplation as she observed the princess increasing paranoia.

Bellamy followed her line of sight " if your talking about Clarke she's fi-"

" You and I both know that's not true." Aedan cuts him of with frankness in her voice that he can not dispute with." She's broken. Haunted by the blood in her hands. Her mind is fracturing peace by peace, and one way or another she will break Bellamy."

" You don't know her that we'll, Clark is strong." He contradict her with a deep devotion in his voice that both interest her and worries Aedan. The unconditional love in his voices is quite profound and impossible to miss. It leaves Aedan feeling rather amazed.

Of course you are, you're a real advocate for true love—just not for yourself, never for yourself.

The thought is disturbing and Aedan refuses to start a pity party right now, especially as she doesn't know who she should be pitying, because as surly as she knows that Bellamy Blake is in love with Clarke Griffen. She also sees that he's completely unaware of the fun little fact.

"I hope your right." For your sake, she hopes silently.

"There you are."

Both her and Bellamy turned their heads to watch Octavia and Raven walking towards them with Lincoln in between them.

"Brother." Octavia drawled out, her light brown eyes amused as she met Bellamy's weary gaze.

" O." He returned, giving her a curt nod. "Aren't you supposed to be playing peacekeeper with the grounders ?"

"I was needed here." And now her attention turned to the redhead, dismissing Bellamy easily enough. After all, the redhead was the real reason she'd come in the first place.

Breaking away from her companions Octavia walked straight up to Aedan , giving her her complete focus and attention. "You are Aedan Cale , yes? I am Octavia Blake, though please call me Octavia."

"That's right, and nice to finally meet you, Octavia. Please call me Aedan." Taking the hand she offered Aedan found it small but firm. This was not someone to be underestimated, her eyes gave her away, she thought.

"I would like that. Now if you would move, Brother." And not waiting for him to do so Octavia reached out and lightly shoved her brother out of her way, much to Bellamy's annoyance.

Slowly the girl walked a circle around Aedan, who stood still in silent amusement while she was looked over. Finding herself more then a little intrigued by the girl in front of her.

Once she'd walked completely around her Octavia came to a stop in front of Aedan, reaching down to lift up the hem of her shirt to get a look at her toned but scared middle. Ignoring Bellamy's groan of dismay Octavia looked her fill before letting the shirt go, reaching up to poke Aedan's check twice.

They stared into each other's eye for at least two minutes before Octavia finally took a step back with a nod of satisfaction, the first part of her evaluation over.

"So do I pass?" Aedan inquired, intrigued despite himself.

"Yep you are most definitely real." Octavia announced. "Had to check you know. Until I saw him hugging you this afternoon I was under the impression that you were Bell's imagery friend. The one he never grew out of. Your not exactly what imagined as my brothers best friend but you'll do."

"What do I need to improve on?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

Challenged Aedan decided that turnabout was fair play. Lifting a finger in her direction to signal for her to remain quiet Aedan copied her earlier actions, walking around her slowly, studying her from head to toe. Then when she was standing in front of her she lifted up the hem of her shirt a little, studying the toned, golden stomach before dropping the material back into place. Then, meeting her amused gaze, Aedan nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"You're not so bad yourself."

Raising an eyebrow Octavia gave her a questioning look. "Are you suggesting that there's some areas where I could improve?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"I see." A small, knowing smile crossing her lips Octavia couldn't have been more delighted with the challenge facing her. "I am thinking, Aedan Cale, that you and I are going to either get along very very well, or become enemies for life."

"I would agree with that."

888

Thinking it wise to change the subject before he died of embarrassment because of either of them Bellamy decide to toss Octavia's grounder boyfriend into the fray without remorse. Not only because they way his little sister and best friend were grinning at each other had a sense of foreboding creep up on him. But, because he wanted to see what Aedan made of the grounder his sister had fallen for.

"Aedan, this is Lincoln, Octavia's boyfriend. Sorry for not introducing you sooner. " Bellamy added, sending Aedan an pointed look that had nothing to do with the lack of introduction and everything to do with focusing Aedan's attentions on him.

Allowing herself to be distracted Aedan turned her gaze towards The silent grounder, looking him over from head to toe with growing female interest. Well wasn't he worth howling about, Bels little sister had good taste, she thought in appreciation, taking in the well muscled body and bad ass aura the grounder was radiating. He was taken though, she could tell the love he clearly held for Bels little sister, besides he just wasn't her type, she was about to wave Bellamy's concern as nothing more as an overreaction of an over protective brother, when she noticed the fixation which the grounder eyed the blood seeping through her bandaged hand, there was something there , something dark lurking underneath, a savage hunger that threatened to overthrow that love.

"The rouge grounder, I have heard a lot about you. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lincoln."she said purposely holding out her injured hand for him to shake Aedan waited to see if he would take the bait.

She studied him closely as he took her offered hand"Thank you," said the grounder to her in quiet tones, his voice serious and his eyes boring into the Aedan's sincerely. "I can't thank you enough. For saving my people." Lincoln's head bowed before the her in respect, and he carefully intoned something that made Aedan's heart still in her chest. "I, Lincoln first born son of the tre kru, hereby offer the Lion heart Aedan, General of the fifth devision, the friendship of this warrior, and grant thee my protection against any enemy. Should you ever need assistance, just ask it of me. As you command it, so shall it be." His bowed head lifts, but his eyes do not. They stay in the blood seeping through her bandages as of if transfixed by the sight an animalistic hunger fills his gaze and twist his facial features. He jerks his now clawed hand back as if burned a second later .

Eyes widening Aedan slowly lowered her hand, unable to believe what she'd just seen. The look on his face had suggested he hadn't even wanted to let go but sink his teeth in. It was a hunger she was faimiler with she realised, she had seen on the faces of the reapers she had encountered and killed.

She watched as he stumbled back some steps, his eyes never leaving the dark blood stain of her hand even as Octavia moved to his side and Aedan turned to Bellamy,Her face even graver than before.

Spotting the Princess first Aedan opted to stay silent and had to work hard not to laugh at the look in the Princess eyes. Now wasn't that interesting, the older girl thought as she forced her face into neutral lines, keeping her thoughts to herself for the moment. "Princess"

"Cale."

Aedan grin only widened at the greeting, not at all bothered by the hostility the other girl was sending her way in waves. As it amused more than annoyed her.

"Clarke." Bellamy said softly, not quite sure what to make of the intensity in the girls blue eyes. Something had her riled up though,that was for sure. But for the first time Bellamy had no idea what was going through Clarke's head and he couldn't read the expression on her face it wasn't one he had seen her ever wear before.

Acting like Aedan wasn't even there as Clarke worked up a fake, reassuring smile for Bellamy. "The unity Feast is about to start we should be going inside." Turning to face Aedan Clarke held out her hand to reveal strips of fabric, ignoring the penetrating and amused gleam in the other girls's eyes as the red head took them. " My mother thought you might need them to wrap your wounds, since you won't let her take a look at them." The Blonde added, since she was aware she was being an ass to Aedan too for reasons she couldn't explain or unwilling to admit even to herself.

"Princess you don't seem all that happy to see me. Your not still mad that I ranked higher than you in that advanced microbiology class?" Aedan couldn't help but to needle at the blonde a little.

Griffen had given Aedan such a hard time when she first applied for the raw command triels . She was convinced, as was half of the other applicants, that Aedan got in based solely off of her last name. Now the other applicants opinion of her had not bothered her in the least. But, for Griffin who had been in the same position as her to have shared that opinion. Well, lets just say it had rubbed her the wrong way. It's not Aedan's fault that she had to go through extreme lengths to prove Griffen wrong. Okay, so it was more like she hacked into the Ark's database, pulled up Griffins schedule and found at least two classes that were relevant to her own major; moving around other students just so she could place herself in said classes and destroy those ridiculous preconceived notions The blonde seemed to have. Grifffin hadn't appreciated that.

"Wait, maybe I'm getting that class confused with the linguistics class we took together as well. Hm. Well that was first year, and I mean, who could remember back that far anyway."

Griffin was livid. "I'm going."

"No problem, you, Raven, Lincoln and the lovely Octavia here go right ahead. Me and Bellamy we'll be right behind , make sure to save us a seat," Aedan sang as Griffin turned and started to stomp away with the rest already ahead her. Aedan was going to let her go but her stupid conscious, which she had worked hard to drown, learned to fucking swim. "Clarke!"

"What!" The blonde gritted" Want me to save some meat for you too."

"I'm sorry about Collins, about what you had to do. I'm glad your alive." Aedan said quickly, but all the same, sincerely.

Nodding automatically, knowing that Aedan wouldn't have said the words if she hadn't meant them and ignoring Bellamy's questioning look as his brown eyes shifted back and froth between them in confusion, Clarke only nodded again and softly said " I'm glad your alive too. Thank you, for saving us at the river,"before turning on her heels to rejoin the group up ahead, feeling the red head's eyes on her with ever step she took.

Aedan waited until she was sure the blonde was out of hearing range before turning her full attention to the openly scowling Bellamy in front of her. "Ok, Raven I understand, you two grew up in the same station. But Clarke, how do you know Clarke?"

Aedan pointedly ignored Bellamy's question not wanting to answer, as she followed the blonde's path at a much slower pace, with as blank an expression as she could mange she asked a question of, "So.."Aedan paused, collecting her thoughts for a moment." I assume the stories I heard about Lincoln having been turned into a reaper by those in the mountain are true then."

Scowling darkly Bellamy only nodded.

"How long was he with them?"

"Two and a half months", he answered quietly.

"Far too long. You can consider yourself lucky not to have died on the spot when you encountered him weeks ago.

"You don't believe he has his bloodlust under control."he stated straight to the point, in a low tone so he would not be heard.

Aedan shook her head and answered honestly." No. I think the bloodlust from his time as a reaper is still there. If what saw is anything to go by his body system has gone into withdrawal. It's reacting the same as it would for an addict deprived of his next fix. He needs a withdrawal therapy. The symptoms will be pretty bad, but if he goes on like this, he won´t make it a month before the bloodlust overpowers him and he's a reaper again."

Nodding stiffly Bellamy turned to Aedan" Can you help him."

Is silent for a moment."Maybe. I'll try at least, but it won't be pleasant Bellamy."

"Do whatever you can."Bellamy sighed and tuned to her when the entrance to the underground tunnel."you said you had a plan right?"

"Yes. Hell if I know if it will actually work."

Bellamy grabs her arm."I'll follow you to whatever end, Aedan. I promise you that"

she nods, her lips set in a grim line." Thanks"

8888

They arrive to the unity feast right at the time that they should. It's being held in a large high walled hall that looks like the old world underground train station from the history books, only darker and creeper and the fact that the room is a mix of exotic flowers, candlelight and a large rectangular table, covered in shinny, steal plates, silverware, and goblets does nothing to change that. The bodies in the room number in the twenty on each side, on one side stand the Tre kru and they're all still dressed in suits and armer and war paint as they mingle under chandelier like candle lights looking even more dangers then ever.

On the other side stands the blonde princess and the rest of the arkers looking decidedly less impressive in comparison.

Upon their arrival, all are standing politely.

This gives Aedan a chance to see where the commander is positioned dead Center directly opposite the entrance where Aedan herself now stands.

The Commander is still dressed in dark Leather, that can be consider formal wear for all female warriors, with colors of chestnut brown and black (only now it comprises of new pair of leather trousers and chiffon like skirt, with a slit at the front giving her freedom of movement and at her waist was a belt with an elaborate buckle holding it in place).

The Comander flicks her dark stormy gaze over to her and she spends a moment observing her with an indecipherable expression. And just like during the burning her scrutiny lasts longer than it normally would for a passing glance and Aedan thinks she can almost read what she's thinking by the way her eyebrow twitches, but it's a near thing. She returns her gaze to the brunnet that Aedan has no problem identifying as Berdine before she can really figure anything out.

But what am I trying to figure out? Aedan wonders.

"Fancy," Aedan murmurs to Bellamy, who snickers quietly beside her and try's to navigate her to the side of the table located at the front of the entrance, more specifically the space inhabitanted by the princess, her mother and Kane. Aedan gives a quick small barely perceptible shake of her head and Bellamy retracts his hand without question and strides into the space between his sister and Griffin.

"General." Berdine makes a motion as if to move towards her, but stops mid motion turning towards the Commander.

Aedan watches closely her mind cataloging everything for later inspection. As the commander cocked her head to Berdine, as if she pondered her expression. For one moment, her eyes clouded, and if Aedan had watched closely, she would have seen her hand gripping the the table so strongly that the iron drove into her hand. But then, her expression cleared again, and she nodded, as if she had come to a conclusion.

"General" The commander greats her with unreadable monotone voice hand pointed to her right side, at the empty seat, between her and the dark growling worrier Indra." If you would, join us, we have space here for you."

Aedan's mouth fidgets indecisively before she nods knowing she has no choice but to follow the request and moves forward around the table to take her place. She walks up to the chair and glances as subtly as she can out of the corner of her eye at the Commander to her right.

An indescribable a feeling twisting her insides as when she steps into the space beside her and the commander's shoulders tense and her full plum lips wane into a grim line as her brow furrows deeper. Her hands tighten in the clutch of her grasp and her thunder like dark eyes stay fixed on something invisible to all but her.

What is going on here? Aedan wonders, her eyes travel along the sharp angles of her jaw all the way up to the scar just above the tip of her ear. Her fingers jerk at her sides at the need to touch. That seems to be a recurring kink when it comes to her. Why the fuck is that? Her hands itching to touch the commander and she had to breathe in to calm her anxiety, noticing that the commander did the same from where she stood. This was-new. Strange.

Aedan's nerves are raw and She resisted the urge to shudder.

Aedan's snapped out of her reverie as The commander began her address the room, a mirror of Clarke, their goblets raised to each other across the table. Her eyes fixed on the side of the commanders face while she spoke, trying to quell the anger that sprung up inside of her. Aedan was begging to hate the lack of control she had over her emotion when around her..

Aedan listened to her finish her speech her face expressionless, but her fist curled as she watched Gustus step forward to take the Commanders cup and decided it was time to put her plan into play.

Aedan shifted forward, interrupting "No, allow me." And offered to test for poison herself.

All eyes sling forward and Aedan bears the weight of every gaze in the room.

8888

Lexa freezes as General Aedan Cale, leader of her fifth devision, voice at her side cuts through her thoughts, and feels her grip involenterley tighten around the goblet, when the general offers to test for poison herself. "Commander, with your permission I would like do the honers." she said. That seemed to bring not just her but every single body in the room to a stand still.

For the first time in a long time Lexa is not the one under the scrutinising gaze of her captains and warriors. No one pays her any attention; all the eyes in the hall are fixed on the General. Including her own.

Lexa feels Gustus stiffen bedside her. "With all due respect, General," he begins, without even turning to face her. "That is not a good idea. Nor would it appropriate."

"Why not?" The general responds calmly. She raised her left eyebrow and looked at her first warrior in mock surprise "There is non more appropriate then me in this hall to do this, Mr. Gustus. After all I am the only one here who is of both worlds, a metaphorical bridge so to speak, it seems only fitting . Don't you agree, commander.."

The feral green eyes don't look at her, not directly, but she can't take her eyes off of them and notices straight away when they shift towards the sky kru warrior with a warning in them when he shakes himself from his stopper. Lexa sees Bellamy's of sky kru eyes darken in grim understanding just before he shifted back into place with pained resigned look in his face as he ignores the questioning look from the sibling to his side.

"Be that as it may, you are the general of the fifth regiment, and your wellbeing is placed above others in precise situations." Her first warrior argues.

"Don't pander to me about what my worth is compared to my people because I can tell you now, I am a lost cause. Priority. Number. One."

Gustus spins to now face the general at her side and he looks frustrated his dark eyes restlessly examine the generals face as if searching for something like a trapped cat would search that of his hunter. "Heda. For all we know, the nectar could be poisoned, if so our people will suffer from a blood debt that can never be repaid and it could cause war, the fifth devision will turn against us!" Her first warrior pleads. Pure fear, anxiety, and dread were clearly visible on his usually blank face.

Lexa doesn't doubt her warrior waring, she recalls the swiftness in which the fifth had come to the generals defence against Marcus of the sky people, each warrior ready and willing to draw blood and prove their love and loyalty, though she was merely an outsider. And she also recalls that same steadfast look in the generals eye as she had rained in her fury to ensure that non of her men did so.

"I can´t imagine that to be a likly ," The Generals counters breezily her voice crisp and clear like a winter morning, with a slightly mocking undertone.

Lexa is reminded of a predator and summons the caution one needs in its presence as her traitorous heart speeds up, the pulse so rapid she can feel it racing beneath her skin. She wants to refuse the generals request of the goblet, but to do so...was a show of weakness, that Lexa would not allow, she was a weakness she would never allow, but she's never felt so utterly powerless. She's frozen, her feet rooted to the floor, one thought in her mind: what was going on here?

" As you wish general. " Lexa fnaly responds her own voice colder then ice, giving away nothing of her inner termoil, she hands the general her goblet, watching her movements closely.

Gustu's mouth shrivels unhappily.

Lexa glances at her warrior only for a moment, without even meaning to really, but he doesn't notice. His dark eyes are fixed to the newly made General at her side. Though his face is as blank and bare as an untouched canvas, his eyes gleam in an odd way that Lexa found unsettling.

Lexa watched her warrior a strange uneasiness rising in her, yet she can't quite pin what the uneasy feeling is or what it means. Lexa gaze continued to bore Gustus until the warriors own finely shifts from the general, to meet hers. Lexa didn't know how long it was before a deep look of regret overcome her warriors, but a dark suspicion started to build in her chest. That suspicion practically turned into a roaring fire when he turns fully in her direction and bowes his head to her in utter defeat.

At his acttions Lexa felt a shiver of something she had not felt for a very long time.

she felt...

What was the word.

Hm,yes. It was strange,unwanted, and bitter in the tongue.

Fear.

What, by the Creator, had he done?

"Heda, tem tie-

What happened next happened in a matter of seconds.

Lexa hears a painful gasping sound from the generals side . She snaps her head in her direction and stares motinless as time seemed to slow down and as if in slow motion, the goblet slips from the generals limp fingers and falls to the floor.

The loud cluter of steal colliding against hard stone vibrates loudly from the now too confining four walls, and the sound to Lexa ears, was like thounder in an open sky.

888

A/N: I know it´s been a while piling shame on my shoulders, but you know it, really really was not my fault, my computer brook down, and I lost the chapter, then I had to rewrite it but had no laptop and my memory is shit honestly. By the way this was written on my iPhone notes so be kind if you must criticise do it in the nicest way you can, cus I still want all your opinions on this chapter. Next chapter, hopefully won't take as long as working on a project that will get me the money indeed to get me a new computer.

Anyway, thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Please write as many reviews as you can for this one to! Like I said I want your opinions even if they are not nice. Critique away !

Disclaimer: Nope. Doesn´t belong to me. Pity.

**P.s . Sorry about the frequent editing. Bits and peace's of the lost original are coming back to me. I hope you all still love the charpter. I'm not really changing anything just adding the thing I couldn't remember.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Previously.**

_Lexa glances at her warrior only for a moment, without meaning to, but he doesn't notice. His dark eyes are fixed to the newly made General at her side. Though his face is as blank and bare as an untouched canvas, his eyes gleam in an odd way that Lexa found unsettling._

_A strange uneasiness manifests with in her, yet she can't quite pin what the uneasy feeling is or what it means. Lexa gaze continued to pierce Gustus until the warriors own finely shifts from The General, to meet hers. Lexa is unaware of how much time passes, before a deep look of regret overtakes her warriors features, but a dark suspicion started to take root in her mind._

_That suspicion practically turned into a roaring fire when he turns fully in her direction and bowes his head to her in utter defeat._

_At his actions Lexa felt a shiver of something she had not felt for a very long time._

_she felt..._

_What was the word._

_Hm,yes. It was strange,unwanted, and bitter in the tongue._

_Fear._

_What, by the Creator, had he done?_

_"Heda, tem Kiev-_

_What happened next happened in a matter of seconds._

_Lexa hears a painful gasping sound from The Generals side . She snaps her head in her direction and stares motinless as time seemed to slow down and as if in slow motion, the cup slips from the generals limp fingers and falls to the floor._

_The loud cluter of steal colliding against hard stone vibrates loudly from the now too confining four walls, and the sound to Lexa ears, was like thounder in an open sky._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_Hope the wound heals but it never does That's cause you're at war with love You're at war with love, yeah_

_These battle scars don't look like they're fading Don't look like they're ever going away They ain't never gonna change These battle..._

**Chapter 6: Battle Scars**

The spirits flow. Rare vintages from Polis are served at the celebrant's table where the tre kru and sky kru sit hand in hand. Lexa has yet to touch any. The Clear, throat-burning liquor provided by the Marcus of the sky kur sits on the very centre of their table, exactly where it had been placed by The General before she had taken her leave of the feast.

The night has become a haze. Laughter rings in Lexa's ears and the world sways like the deck of a boat on the waves of a river during a damp and frosty autumn. She braces herself against a high-backed chair, staring determinedly at the liquid that gleams under the low lighting, similarly to the way it had when the general had lifted it from it's resting place and poured the nectar diligently into her own waiting empty cup.

The General had then proceeded to taste the liqueur and hand it over to Lexa to drink after apologizing for dropping Lexa's own cup due to her wrist injury.

Something Lexa new to be an outright lie. The cup had been purpersly dropped.

Her captains from all seven Devisions sit at their own table, shunning the sky kru camaraderie as they look on at their rather weak attempts to join in on the boisterousness of the tre kru warriors. They say their speeches in the concise, soft accents of the part of the lands they hail from, bowing to their Commander in deference and eyeing the sky kru, specifically the sky princess with open suspicion.

In all honesty it was not just her captains who did so, but all of her warriors. There were some however , who hid it better then others and some like Quinn, who do not even attempt to do so. The only exception was the ever diligently protector by her side, who's gaze had not wavered once from the shadow entrance of the hall since the exit of The General through it.

"You seem very tense Gustus," Lexa comments.

Gustus turns sideways to meet her gaze "Heda?"

Maintaining eye contact with her worrier Lexa lifts the cup she had hand to her by the general and sips. Slowly. She watches as Gustus stares into the brim of her cup with a ashen face. "We've been handed peace with a dangerous enemy turned ally overnight. Ensured that our people do not bleed unnecessarily. We finally have the reinforcement required to face our enemy's within the mountain. Yet, you do not seem pleased old friend. I can't blame you for being suspicious. Peace has never come at an easy price as a meer alliance. But, I believe this is not the source of your unease. Speak true Gustus. Is there something you wish to tell me?"

Gustus mouth tenses into a thin frown and his entwined fingers tighten around each other.. This and the way his breath shudders do not escape Lexa's attention.

"Yes Heda." he sighs.

"I see," Lexa whispers, trying hard to subdue her scorn.

Carefully so as not to draw any unnecessary attention she stands up from her high backed chair "Follow me."

She leaves without a look back, knowing he would obey.

888

Lexa enters the quarters that she has claimed her own and has consigned as off-limits to anyone but those she invites inside with her first warrior not far behind. The room has been sparsely furnished with a large oak table and comfortable chair for her alone. A set up that is purposely structured as sign to all who enter that the she does not entertain any visitors notion of power-play.

To the right, a sizeable window offers a view of almost the entire of Ton dc's main town centre, giving the room ample light and Lexa a crystal clear view Of the amber haired figure of Aedan Cale, in her personal quarters without deliberate permission. She sits, feet propped and comfortably situated behind Lexa's work desk in Lexa's chair as if it were her own. It is a quality she possesses, Lexa notes faintly, to be able to conquer another individual's personal space and claim it without difficulty.

A part of Lexa it would seem, had known that she would be there, as she did not find herself to be overly surprised, but nothing prepared her for the graceful majesty, of the image before her, or the onslot of emotion attacking her well structured walls and her breath caught for a moment as her visions was obscured by the memory of another red head in a similar position not many years ago.

The memory effects her enough that it takes her longer than she would like to admit even to herself , to notice that Raven of the sky people is in her quarters also.

Stray breezes play with the Generals long, flame like hair as she hunches over a special piece of parchment. She is a coiled rope of restraint while she lays the words within to memory. Her frown deepens at every line.

The general must feel her gaze, because she peers over the top of the parchment at Lexa with thoughtfully green eyes, body still unnaturally at ease in her position."Commander.", she finally acknowledged her presence with a short tilting of her head.

" General", she answered, not a hint of a smile in her eyes, "Care to explain as to why you have sought entrance into my quarters and possession of my chair without invitation or permission?"

Suddenly, The general smiled, a feral smile that exposed her canines in very threatening way and Gustus tenses even further at her side as she stares up at Lexa with eyes colder then Azagadian winters and reminds Lexa of a lounging lion, lying in repose yet ready to slaughter any threat as she leaned back in Lexa's chair, resting her head against it in a strangely sensual gesture.

"I thought it was time we finally met face to face Commander."she began after a moment of silence calmly. Feral green eyes flickering over Lexa's shoulder to Gustus and back again," We have a lot to discuss."

Lexa narrows her eyes at her, wondering if this is a test. "We've met before, General."

The sky girl says darkly, "Not properly, Commander. We met at a time, place and manner that –in a more peaceful ground–would never have been of my choosing." as she finally sits up from Lexa's chair; her hair dishevelled as they fall in flaming rivulets to her shoulders. The dark smile that has taken over her expression sharpens her beauty to a dangerous edge. Lexa is once again is reminded of a predator and summons the caution one needs in its presence.

They stand eye to eye and Lexa bears the brunt of Aedan Cale's scrutiny –a blast of heat that makes it difficult to breathe. It hovers over her face, pauses at her lips and slides down to the hollow of her clavicle.

The Commander does not allow such blatant enquiry but she reasons that Aedan Cale is an ally that the Tre kru cannot afford to lose. Already, her clan owes her a debt of gratitude.

"So the tales told in Trikova have been right," Aedan Cale says, looking at her almost accusingly. "You're very beautiful."

Lexa stares nonplussed. "Excuse me?" To catch an opponent unaware is a common enough tactic used by politicians to gain the upper hand. She does not expect it from a sky girl who has spent only a mear year on the ground .

"You are beautiful," The the chit of a sky girl enunciates, slowly this time as though to a child. "I've only just noticed. Beauty is a rare thing especially during war-time, but I'd be very deluded to think that someone's beauty, even yours, equates to goodness." The challenge is apparent.

Lexa is convinced that the sky girl is deliberately pushing at her restraint, gauging her reactions. It hints at fearlessness –which so few have when in her presence –and alarming astuteness.

"I don't wish to bandy words with you, if you have something to discuss, then speak plainly. " Lexa demanded, ignoring the way her heart jumped in her chest, the quickening of her pulse, and sudden flush of sweat that beaded her palms.

Aedan Cale's answering smile is enigmatic, throwing light across a face that has been altered by ordeals unknown to Lexa. For an instant, the laughter reaches those feral green eyes and the wall between them collapses.

A moment later however it retuned, and the way the sky girl looked down on her made Lexa feel cold inside. Lexa doesn't have to look her first warriors way to know that he is steadily drawing closer to her and Aedan Cale , like he wants to be a physical wall between them.

"Very we'll, simply put", The General responds smoothly without sparing a glance in her warriors direction "I wanted to inform you", The Lion-heart tells her, "That while after this night there might be politics and long talks and promises that will no doubt be broken. There will never again be an attempt made on any of the hundred outside of a battlefield.

"Attack? You expect I will to break my word?"

Aedan Cale turns sideways to meet her gaze. "I know you will. I know you and Griffin both will."

Lexa raises a brow, incredulous. "What makes you think—"

"It's only to be expected," Aedan interrupts, turning from her towards her warrior, who now stands at parade rest between her and the lion heart at a distance that would make him the pointed top in their three-person triangle. "You and Griffin are the very optimum of leaders and as a leaders your people come first above any friendship, any truce. You followed through on your plans to attack the hundred, for your people, you formed alliance with the skai kru, for your people." She circles her warrior as she speaks and comes into full circle once again within Lexa's personal space and pauses thoughtfully. Then Lion heart continues,"You are no monster," There is no apology for the clear violation of both their personal spaces, only an airy casualness that stems from unease. "I know you aren't, even if I try –and I have tried very hard –before meeting you to convince myself otherwise. I …I have come to understand that about others," she frowns as she whispers, "and about myself. But, I also know that if given reason too you will betray this alliance in a heartbeat, for your people."

"However, your would be actions are not my main priority at the moment. Those of your first warriors are."The Lion Heart points out as she moves more fully towards Gustus.

The implication tolls like the gongs of a funeral pyre, heavy and foreboding Lexa's mind. Their meaning impossible to mistake.

"Explain," Lexa demanded.

"How about it cupcake are you going to tell her or should I?"Aedan Cale cocks her head and grins obnoxiously at an unresponsive Gustus "Your warrior," Aedan replied when Gustus didn't. "Laced your cup with poison."

Lexa makes sure to keep face is blank behind her warpaint, but her sharpe mind has already aligned the puzzle pieces together and they picture they create is hard to refute. "Gustus would never harm me," she insists with conviction even as she turns to her trusted protector, eyes blazing behind her mask.

"Ah, but you weren't the target," Aedan Cale replied. "The alliance was."

Lexa's hands tighten into fists. She turns to Gustus. "Yu don ge finga au, Gostos. Ron ai ridiyo op." She commands him to answer truthfully to the accusation.

"This alliance would cost you your life, Heda." Gustus admitted his guilt. "I could not let that happen." Gustus was duty-bound to protect her life, something Lexa was intimately familiar with.

Lexa takes five steps forward, invading Gustus personal space until they are standing toe to toe. She takes a moment to see if there is anything there beyond defiance and vicious determination in Gustus eyes. Failing to see even a sliver of sympathy, Lexa shoves the other worrier. As soon as Gustus stumbles backwards, Lexa lifts her arm and backhands Gustu's cheek.

The other warrior's head snaps sideways, his lip splitting open. Blood flies to the floor.

"This treachery will cost you yours."Lexa blinks and forces all of her emotions from her eyes forced the agony and the rage, the bitter tearing of an old loss being revisited, into the recesses of her mind. Forced her whole being into stone, hard, unyielding, unfeeling.

Wiping the blood from his lip, Gustus straightens pulls his sword from its scabbard, hold it's it up with both hands and pushes the blade into Lexa's hand. Despite the bruised lip, Gustus manages a pained smile and grasps Lexa's arm.

"I live to serve, Heda, whatever it is you may believe," he says. "Or my action indicate. Know that I am proud to have been your warrior."

Gustus makes no attempt to move, no attempt to fight and no attempt to argue in his own defence, simply drops to his knees and bows his head in respect and surrender.

With her heart once again torn apart Lexa wraps her fingers around the handle of her warriors blade, withdraws it from Gustus grasp and just as quickly swings the sword to ends her oldest friends, her protectors life.

But there is a unfamiliar, yet strong force blocking her blade with another. Forcing her away.

Involuntarily, once again Lexa's eyes freeze into an arresting shade of dark green, a familiar feeling of mistrust and something like fear is crawling back inside reawakening in her mind and hear just like before and even as Lexa braces herself, Aedan Cale reaches out to her and places a hand on her arm. Her touch bursts with heat and Lexa stares at it, horrified. It is as foreign and unwelcome as the warmth already creeping into her chest.

She can struggle. She can struggle for the rest of her life but she knows that she is to give in soon. Give into what she doesn't know. The past still haunts her; fear sits in her belly like a dragon wiling its time, scratching its nails on frail and frenzied emotions. Any provocation can wrench it from its hiding place.

"No, Commander." Aedan Cale tells her, "This kill, is not yours to make"There is no way Lexa could have prepared herself for those words coming out of Sky girls mouth. It's the last thing she expects to hear. The words that follow shake her to her core." When you were the ones wronged you got to decided the fate of the one who wronged you. It's only fair that my friend is offered the same curtsy don't you think?"

The red head is the first to break eye contact. She turns her back to Lexa and walks across the room to a the dark haired sky girl who has remained silent the whole time as unmoving as Lexa now finds herself.

"The kill is yours, Raven."

888

The last thing Raven expected when Aedan comes to her side after the feast settles down a bit and asks her to follow her is to be brought to the commanders quarters. She expects it even less to come face to face with said Commander and her first warrior not moments after.

She was prepared for a fight. She wasn't prepared for this.

She wasn't prepared to hear that said warrior had planned to frame her for attempted murder.

She wasn't prepared for Aedan the only person she trusted apart from Fin to cross the room and stand in front of her in four easy strides and tell her that the kill was hers to make.

She wasn't prepared when In a motion that echoes hours of practiced movements with a bladed weapon, Aedan retrieve and effortlessly spins the dagger in her open palm or for her to closes her fingers around the blade of the knife and without ever breaking eye contact with Raven, extends her arm toward her; offering Raven the handle.

She is not peppered. So it takes a second for Raven to realize what Aedan has done. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. Nothing makes any senses.

"Raven." Aedan's voice is steady and void of emotion.

Raven doesn't respond. Her eyes simply bore into Aedan's uncomprehending for what feels like Forever.

She can't read anything in Aedan's eyes and nothing about her body language is giving her away. There's no indication for Raven as to what her old friend is thinking; nothing but instinct and experience. Instinct tells her that she's right to be wary. Experience tells her only that Aedan is trying to show her something she thing words can never explain.

The whole is situation is like a haunting echo of the night Fin had been taken from her. Only, now it's Raven who has been handed a weapon and told take a life, not Clarke.

Suddenly Raven's seething with barely controlled anger beneath the surface. All of this pain inside was Clarke's doing.

If only Clarke had killed The Commander like Raven had asked non of this would be happening.

Raven can feel Aedan eyes watching her closely, scrutinizing her face, her posture, her closed fists now hanging loosely at her sides. First ten then twenty seconds pass and Raven stays rooted to the spot, unspeaking. Aedan recognizes the fire in her eyes for what is is; rage.

In less time than it takes Aedan to blink, Raven wraps her fingers around the handle of the dagger, withdraws it from Aedan's grasp and just as quickly advances until the blade is pressed firmly into warriors throat.

888

It was still dark, and as she made her way down one particular dark tunnel that led to the Commanders quarters Clarke was beginning to question how urgent this matter really was.

Bellamy and Octavia were trudging behind her slowly, but surely as the stare at Clarke's worriedly and thinking that maybe this was too much. Too soon.

And maybe it was To much. Too Soon.

But Clarke didn't have the luxury of time in her side. Her friends were in danger of dying in the mountain and now Raven had vanished. Clarke had searched everywhere for her after the feast and found her nowhere. She was worried that in her state Raven might do something she would regret later.

The first thing that Clarke did after she searched every dark corner of TonDc she could get into, was try and track down Aedan, she searched for almost half an hour with no results.

Clarke needed to find Raven. And then she needed to talk to the Commander about Aedan.

She needed to warn her to be carful when it came to Aedan.

Clarke remembers Aedan pretty well, after all she had made one hell of an impression on her the first time they met in the party she and wells had snuck their way into. An impression, but she never said it was a good one.

She and wells had been enjoying themselves when had had seen the flame like hair and those too-bright-to-be-true green eyes and had thought 'Their beautiful'.

Clarke is not afraid to admit that she was attracted to both the male and female gender. But, there had never been any female that had attracted her on sight before, like Aedan Cale had.

She found her brilliant, by all standards a genius, still does even now. And yet she can not get her first memory of her not soon after meeting her to lie down and be silent.

The way she'd torn through those other attendants at the party, the reckless abandon and almost stony glee on her face had been unsettling to witness when one of them has the audacity to strike Clarke, for turning down his unwanted advances.

The barely restrained violence that Clarke had seen Aedan unleash in a flurry of fists and feet and sharp, sharp movements that cut through the crowd like hot steel through flesh.

Although the hit that had landed on her face had stung, Clarke knows that she had not even felt it, because as soon as the shock had worn off it had returned seconds later. Where the hit had failed to effect Clarke it had succeed to unleash the hell-spawn that Clarke had failed to see lurked in the too-bright- to be true green eyes. She can recalls with crystal clarity how she had stood frozen and only watched with what she is not ashamed to admit was fear at the sight of Aedan Cale as she fought. Smooth, precise and yet vicious movements that wasted no energy, no time. She had been deadly, more so than even the higher level security personnel that Clarke has seen fight in the Ark.

Nothing had seemed to slow her down at all. She remembers how the red haired beauty had just danced through the bodies on the floor around her, her hands and feet moving like quicksilver, as she took down man after man. How Clarke had somehow known She was holding back, known this because the men on the floor had been hurt but alive and deep down some part of her might have known that if the redhead had truly lost control they would have all be dead. Because that could have been the only reason she said nothing to Kane about who she was when he questioned Clarke.

Why she says nothing when the next morning when redhead smirked at her from her seat on the advanced command class with no trace of recognition in her face or eyes as too who Clarke was, she says nothing and just dismiss her the same as the others.

Now Clarke knows that there is something dark and dangerous behind that beautiful face and those too-bright-to-be-true green eyes and she needs to make sure the Commander dose too. After they find Raven.

She opens the door to a secluded room and stops dead at the sight she finds. Inside, Raven and and the grounder Gustus are in the centre of the room. Raven has a knife in her hand – struggling to hold it steady as it diggs into the warriors throat with almost enough pressure to draw blood.

The warrior's face is grim, but unreadable as ever and most of all bloody like someone had taken a swing at him. The warrior doesn't even acknowledge Clarke's presence but wilfully faces Raven as if daring her to kill him.

"Raven." Clarke whispered as she steps further into the room but before she can get far there is a familiar, yet strong forcing her back. Forcing her away. She looks up at at the face of the person whose hold she can't get free "Bellamy?"What's going on? Raven what are you doing?"

Raven too barely looks at Clarke before sighing. "I don't know princess" She snarls honestly through gritted teeth with bearly suppress rage in her voice. But otherwise remains silent.

Clarke is taken aback both by the absolute venom laced in Ravens words and at the lack of fear in them and feels wary.

She remembers all of a sudden, how much Raven must hate her. How much she must wish for her death in a thousand different ways. Each cruel, each unimaginable. She knows the feeling, she has experienced the emotions both here and in the Ark. She knows well that by killing Finn she had taken from Raven not only her first love, a second time, but most of all she had taken the only family, best friend, that Raven had ever known. There is an instant whirlwind of pity laced with pain that flows through her and she feels an overwhelming amount guilt that no amount of reasoning of her rational mind, that she did what had to be done, will ever get rid of.

The forever haunted feeling returns as she notices Ravens hate filled dark eyes scampering away from Clark, instead focusing grimly behind her. Her eyes flicker continuously, to more than one corner of the room, to fast for Clarke to keep up and her brow begins to furrow.

Confusion deepens.

Clarke looks back to see The Commander to her left , staring at her warrior and Raven blankly. She has her hand warped tightly around the handle of her sword in the same way she had when she had when she had confided in Clarke about Costia and her face is hard enough to be carved of stone.

A familiar flash of red suddenly makes itself visible to the corner of Clarke's eye and she turns around and glares at Its source already recognized. "Why are you playing at Aedan? Whatever is going here, I know you !" The words fall of Clarke's tongue so quickly and so fiercely that she can feel her veins crackle with rage, obliterating all common sense from her head obviously, otherwise she would have known better then to speak to Aedan Cale this way. "This is your handiwork."

Slowly feral green eyes narrow and focus on Clarke's only, the dangerous light in them pinning her to a standstill sending a chill down Clarke's spine, reminding her she is dreading on dangerous grounds.

Aedan shakes her head in mock disbelief and lets out a tut disapproving sound, like it all should be very obvious to Clarke. "It's rather simple Princess I'm killing two birds with one stone, and cleaning up after your mess all on one go." There is no smirk behind her comment, no mercy, absolutely no sense of the previous bestowed compassion or playfulness. "This is damage control from the fallout of your actions."

Clarke walks closer towards her and breaths heavily. "What?"

"Surly you can't be Confused?" Cale taunts as she circles around Clarke slowly. "How about I give you the Readers Digest Version so your up to speed on what's going on : Cupcake here laced The commanders cup with poison." Aedan grabs a small sachet of some sort on the table next to her and throw it over to Clarke. "He planted this on Raven at the gate to make it appear as if she was responsible."

The sachet feels heavy in Clarke's hand. The weight of it feels as heavy as the blade she had plunged in Fin heart, just wrong, it feels forbidden. She drops it on the floor.

Clarke feels the same empty feeling that she felt three days ago, she feels herself sinking slowly into a pit of pitch black darkness that she can never hope to crawl out.

"Are you telling me what I believe you to be telling me?" Her words are laced with pure horror. "Why would h-?." She breaths in heavily and clenches her jaw, "He wanted to break the alliance."

"At the feast, all that fuss over the cup?" She asks carefully, "How did you know? Why didn't you say anything? What were you thinking Aedan?! If your aim is to punish him for trying to hurt us, why make Raven do it? Why her?"

Aedan eyes do not shy away from Clarke's blue and she continues to look at her calmly. "So she can be rid of the pain you caused her." The words are bullets being lodged into her skull, crying – wailing for release. "He tried to take her life. It's only right that she take his. As The Commander has pointed out, blood demands blood."

888

"Raven, don't do this. Don't… "Clarke pleaded.

Lexa sees Raven's hand tremble around the knife, can almost feel the vibrations working their way up her arm as if it was her own. Can almost feel them pierce her chest, the very darkness she had buried her heart in. Her head is a mess of echoes, a mantra throbbing between her ears like an opened wound– Jus drein, jus daun. Jus drein, jus daun.

Gustus doesn't move, doesn't say a word, and stands still and strong before the girl who's life he had plotted to take. He hardly breathes, his throat just slightly working with a shallow swallow that causes his flesh to strain against the blade pressed to his jugular. His eyes are a dying dusk, the sorrow evident in them as they pierce Lexa's own, wilting Lexa's fury, and Lexa feels the weight of that steady gaze like another body on her back, another soul tied to her ankles.

The sky girls whole body now quivers as she lets the knife dip away from Gustus neck, just a millimeter of space, before she summons her resolve and tightens her grip. Pressing the knife harder against Gustus throat, until Lexa hears the tiniest gasp from her warrior, the blade at his throat drawing a drop of precious blood to the surface.

The sight of it shakes the Sky girl, enough so the blade is retracted by millimetres once more"You …" Her voice is as broken, as trembling, as her soul, as her heart, as her hands. "I know what you're trying to do, Aedan," She said quietly, dark tear stained eyes fixed to the crimson drop making its way down Gustus throat to soak into the material of his tunic.

"Do you really, little bird?" Aedan drawled from where she had positioned herself. It was the first time she had spoken to since the pressing of her blade to Raven palm, and the Raven girl flinched slightly, but then turned around to her and nodded slowly.

"Yes I do,and sorry to disappoint you. I'm not playing your game. You think I don't know that your not really going to let me kill the fucking grounder in the end. You don't think I know that this whole thing is some sheared set up, to what? Remind me that I'm not really capable of murder? That I'm not a monster? What exactly are you trying to prove Aedan!"

Aedan sighed and slowly walked over to them. Lexa could see a gleam in Bellamy's eyes, telling her that the Sky warrior knew exactly what she was planning and wasn't that happy about it.

"I know you are capable of it, Raven. We all have monsters inside of us capable of everything and anything. It's never been about what we can and can't do. It's about what we can and can't live with. If it helps you to kill him. I give you my word that I will not do anything to stop you Raven" She told her. "But you should be absolutely sure that you want this. That you can live with it. It will cost you a piece of your yourself that you will never get back."

"Aedan," Bellamy began, but she just shook her head and sent him a glance that silenced him immediately.

It dose not appear to have the same effect on Clarke who strides forward only to find her path blocked by Bellamy.

"Get out of my way, Bellamy"Clarke growled.

"No. This has to be done Clarke," The sky warrior told the blonde, and She looked up to him in disbelief

"Well then," The redhead askes Raven ignoring them both. "Are you sure…?"

Clarke struggles helplessly in Bellamy's hold."No! Let go off me Bellamy. No! No! Aedan stop this!"

The girl Raven nodded, and the General stepped even closer to her took the girl's hand and the weapon she gripped tightly in her own hand and tilted it upwards, so that the edge of her blade dug into Gustus skin, tearing the flesh above his heart open, achingly open.

Less than a minute into the tearing of the warriors flesh, Raven's face turned grey, and her eyes widened to an impossible size. Her body started twitching.

Aedan held the contact of blade to skin for more than ten minutes and Raven seemed on the verge of collapse the entire time.

Then, Aedan Cale finally loosened her iron grip and let go of her.

For a moment, the Raven's body swayed while she returned to reality, her complexion turning very pale and green,ripped her self away from the generals steady grip threw herself away from Aedan Cale and to the ground. The sound of her violent retching filled the room, in which all sound had finally been muted.

With an expression too calm to be natural, The General kneeled by her side and placed her hand on Raven's neck.

"Try to breathe deeply and steadily," She told her in a soft low tone. "The feeling will subside in a moment."

It didn't look like it, though. A shivering took hold of brunette 's frame, until her whole body, still crouching on the floor, shook violently. Still she retched, and it took Lexa a moment to interpret the shaking of Raven's shoulders correctly. The brunette was crying, and the retching turned into dry, heaving sobs.

"Gods, Aedan, didn't you overdo it a bit?" Bellamy asked, stepping closer with a worried expression. "This was your plan?"

The General just smiled sadly and repositioned her hand from Rave's neck to cradle the top of her head.

"Not exactly, initially The plan was for me to drink the poison." She told Sky warrior, and Lexa stared down at her in disbelief."But, cupcake over there surprised me."

"Why was this necessary?" He asked, pointing at Raven's trembling frame.

Aedan nodded. "It was a extreme ," She admitted. "But as long as it shows her what she needs in order for her to see past her rage, her pain …"

"See what!"Clark's snarls in rage by Bellamy side.

Finally, Raven's convulsive twitching and the terrible sounds ceased.

When she looked up to Aedan Cale, Lexa saw a new expression in her eyes.

"See … What it is to do something you can never take back or make amends for."Raven of sky breathes out, and it sounds as broken as Lexa feels. "What true regret looks and feels like. Understand that Fin … there was no saving him. I could see it in his eyes. The guilt. The pain. The way he gave himself up like that. He was already dying inside, what he did, it wasn't something he could live with. And you, you were the only one brave enough to put him out of his misery before they could spend the night torturing him in front of all of us...That like him, I myself was trending a thin line from doing something I couldn't live with. Beacouse I... I'm reposble for what happened to him, for his death." Raven grits her teeth, blinks away the hot tears flooding her eyes, the pressure of their presence only intensifying with the understanding flooding The General's gentle gaze–the same understanding that had always occupied Costias eyes and spoken to soul. The girls frame shakes harder than ever, and Lexa sees the wavers for a moment, before her hand pressed against the grils ribs like she is trying to steady her.

"That's not true little bird, It's not your fault."

Raven flinches slightly and when Aedan Cale pulls back slightly from their embrace looks at her, there are tears in her eyes. "He was here because of me."

"What?" Clalrke of the finally speaks again.

A tear rolls down Raven's cheek. "I got the only perfect score in Zero G-Mech history, but I failed the physical." She presses a hand against her chest. "I have a heart murmur. It's like a trillion to one that I'll ever feel it, but they didn't want to waste the training on me." She pauses and more tears roll down her cheeks. "Finn found a way for me to fly anyway. We got caught and he took the fall."

"I don't understand," Clarke says.

Raven grits her teeth "what's so hard for you to understand princess I'm as responsible for his death as the knife you plunged into his chest.

"That's not true, it's not your fault." The General repeats family." The only one responsible for what happened to Fin is Fin.

"Don't you see?" Raven's voice is racked with pain. "I sent him here. If he hadn't gone to the Skybox for me, he would have– "

"He would've died on the ark or on the way down to the ground or he would've followed you down here as you followed him and died for the exact same crime he committed killed those women and children."

"I know what he did was wrong Aeadn. But he was all I had and without him I am lost, Fin was my anchor, my only constant, without him I don't who I am anymore ," Raven whispers, and The General remains steady in front of her.

The General's body doesn't tremble like Raven's, and her hand is firm as she holds Raven's gaze like she can say a million things with a glance, but still, she chooses to speak, and the words that whisper across her lips snap something in Lexa she can not name.

"You are who you have always been Raven." The General just whispered in the cradled head of dark hair words that Lexa knows are not meant to be heard by any other but are." You are a surviver, like me. A keeper of souls, who wont buckle under the weight of those dead, but remembers the fallen and carries on in their name."

One hot tear breaks free and slips down Raven's dirty cheek. Aedan's fingers, spread across the girls ribs, shift slowly up her side and press against her back, and Lexa sees the girl break, her strength dwindle as she is pressed and moulded to Aedan Cale's body in the next breath, and The redhead's arms embrace her with ease and earnest.

"I know it feels impossible right now. "She breaths so quirky into brunette hair, that Lexa can just bearely hear her. "But you can do it. What you do not see in yourself I see in you. I believe in you. Your so strong Raven. You can do anything you put your mind too, and the first thing you need to do is get yourself back up. Rest, and clean yourself, and eat something. You will remember today as your darkest day. And tomorrow… will be better. The day after, better still. You will go on."

Slowly, Raven raised her head from it's resting place of the red heads neck and looked at her in disbelief. It appeared to Lexa that she quietly asked her how she could ever do these normal, everyday things again, after what she'd been through.

"Life goes on, Raven," Aedan told her softly. Slowly, she raised her hand and placed it on her cheek and softly whipped away her tears. The brunette flinched, but she didn't pull away, and after a second or two, her muscles relaxed.

"The pain will ease in time."

"That's hard to believe," She answered hoarsely. "There so much pain inside that no amount of time will fix, that all I want to do is...scream!..but I'm not even capable of that anymore. What if this pain, this agony, it just gets worse. What if it's agony now and then... then it's just hell later on? I don't think I can ever forget…"

"You will never forget," She interrupted her. "But you will learn to live with it, like I did."

"If you're going through hell Raven... the best thing to do is keep going! Take my hand. Trust that I can get you through this, because I swear to you I can."Suddenly, she smiled sadly. "Remember that strength that so many people have tried to take from you. It is still in you."

For a moment, Raven looked as if she wanted to argue her point. But then she seemed to realize who she was talking with, and again, Lexa could see traces of a strange emotion in her eyes, a mixture of awe, fear and admiration, before she nodded and with Achingly slow motion that's scream of excruciating mental and physical pain they sky girl pulls herself to her feat with strength that Lexa can't help but admire and respect.

"I'll get her to our tent," Bellamy offered, arm already wrapped around Raven's shoulders like a shield and was rewarded with a smile from The General.

"Take good care of her," She said quietly. "She will have a hard time of it."

The general watched Raven's and Bellamy's frame fade out of sight then turned towards Lexa with bright triumph eyes and a blinding smile robbing Lexa completely of her ability to breath.

"Well I guess blood dose not demand blood tonight." It was in this moment, when she watched her settle into the role of calm professionalism in less than a heartbeat, that Lexa realized that the redhead had controlled the situation from the moment she had handed Raven of the sky her blade, that she had chosen to do this not only to help put the pieces of the broken girl back together but also the four figures who were the very pillars of strength that kept the sky people alive. That the whole confrontation had been a demonstration, given to convince the others both of her competence and how close they had come to becoming the tools of there own destructions.

And that she had obviously succeeded.

For the sudden action had achieved what no explanation could have done and opens their eyes.

No longer blinded by agony of her memory's to see. It's only now that differences between the two women are glaringly obvious Lexa.

For all that the two looked alike, besides the eyes of course, for all that the two acted alike on the surface, Lexa now knows that the redhead before her and Costia could not be more different.

The two of them may be in many ways almost mirror images of each other, almost the same in shape and appearance but total opposites in all else.

There is a wildness, a feral darkness that lurks in the under the bright beauty of Aedan Cale , that so unlike the vibrant and yet calm mind of the girl Lexa had lost two years before.

Lexa peers at the woman, not girl, as her mind had been so instant on labelling her and it's only now that she is able to look past the curtain of red hair and at a profile that is carelessly strong even when in pain and acknowledged Adean Cale's as something more than just Costias ghost.

When Aedan catches her gaze, she finds herself once again entrapped in feral green eyes.

Lexa knows, in her heart of hearts, that their destinies will forever be intertwined.

888

A/N: Ok. After a very very long, very serious debate,- with myself. I finally come to a decision and I'm sorry but I decided to let Gustus live, cus I truly believe it was his death that renewed Lexas belief that Love is weekness and lead to her turning her back on the alliance with the sky people at Mount weather. Pls let me know what you think.

Oh, and I apologize for any mistakes I might have made – English second language, so be gentle with me!


	7. Chapter 7

**Previously.**

_"Well I guess blood dose not demand blood tonight." It was in this moment, when she watched her settle into the role of calm professionalism in less than a heartbeat, that Lexa realized that the redhead had controlled the situation from the moment she had handed Raven of the sky her blade, that she had chosen to do this not only to help put the pieces of the broken girl back together but also the four figures who were the very pillars of strength that kept the sky people alive. That the whole confrontation had been a demonstration, given to convince the others both of her competence and how close they had come to becoming the tools of there own destructions._

_And that she had obviously succeeded._

_For the sudden action had achieved what no explanation could have done and opens their eyes._

_No longer blinded by agony of her memory's to see. It's only now that differences between the two women are glaringly obvious Lexa._

_For all that the two looked alike, besides the eyes of course, for all that the two acted alike on the surface, Lexa now knows that the redhead before her and Costia could not be more different._

_The two of them may be in many ways almost mirror images of each other, almost the same in shape and appearance but total opposites in all else._

_There is a wildness, a feral darkness that lurks in the under the bright beauty of Aedan Cale , that so unlike the vibrant and yet calm mind of the girl Lexa had lost two years before._

_Lexa peers at the woman, not girl, as her mind had been so instant on labelling her and it's only now that she is able to look past the curtain of red hair and at a profile that is carelessly strong even when in pain and acknowledged Adean Cale's as something more than just Costias ghost._

_When Aedan catches her gaze, she finds herself once again entrapped in feral green eyes._

_Lexa knows, in her heart of hearts, that their destinies will forever be intertwined._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

_Devotion save me now_

_I don't wanna stray from the hallowed ground_

_I'll turn temptation down_

_I'm asking you to take me to safety this time_

_Devotion, Devotion..._

_I'm a slave unto the mercy of your love_

_For so long, I've been so wrong_

_I could never live without you_

_Devotion, Devotion_

_Take me to safety_

**Chapter 7: Devotion**

_As per routine when Lexa awakes from her slumber, for one single, blessed moment she didn´t know who she was nor where she was. She only felt the warmth, the sweet herbal smell of her pillow. Nothing hurt, nothing was wrong. She could just lie there without a care in the world._

_Then, she opened her eyes and remembered. She was Lexa, adopted daughter of the Woods Clan, former second-in-command of the Trikru leader, Anya, former friend and lover to the Deceased Wood lands Princess Costia. She was Lexa, Commander of the 12 Clans, Born of nightblood, heir to Bekka Pramheda and certain doom._

_Sometimes, she felt like breaking into pieces, as if all the different masks she wore and roles she played would split away from her and develop a life of their own, until nothing would be left of her but a little child of long ago, struggling to breath under the ice water she had been thrown into, sobbing and helpless._

_But she was a warrior and would die a warriors death before that happened._

_Sinister emotions of suspicion and doubt have plagued Lexa since the Unity feast, why had the sky girl spared Gustus life? It was clear she did not really intend for Raven of the sky to do it. But, why did she not take his life herself. Why not expose Gustus betrayal? Why did she stay silent? The doubt at her motives had suppressed Lexa's need to search for the red head she had seen no hide or hair of for the past two moons, not since the confrontation of Gustus betrayal. The suspicion that the General saw Gustus betrayal and the man himself as means she could use to manipulate Lexa, had lead to the instant dismissal of Gustus from her side. Lexa would not allow a single weakness for anyone to prey upon. After her morning ablutions, she finally can't hold her curiosity any longer and asks for the whereabouts of the General ._

_Berdine and the sky warrior Bellamy round the corner just as the steward is about to reply. Her Captian dismisses the smaller man with a look and Berdine overtakes the conversation, smooth as silk._

_"She wakes before dawn, Heda, a habit that hasn't changed since she joined us in Trikova and goaded Diaval into fighting her. You'll find her at the biggest courtyard near the Fifth' barracks, overseeing their training."_

_"Thank you, Captian," she says, turning to leave._

_The sky warrior Bellamy starts, "I apologise, Commander, if I seem forward—"_

_"Don't worry, you already are," Lexas says, her voice hard._

_The sky warriors dark eyes narrow but he forges on. Careless bravery is a distinct trait of the Sky soldier it would seem."But, I need a word with you, alone Commander," The sky worrier insisted again, refusing to back down._

_"Very well," Lexa said after a moment and walked a few steps with him so they were out of hearing distance of Berdine and her guard, but still within sight then turned around . "What can I do for you, Bellamy Blake?" she said cooly, not taking her eyes off Bellamy but giving the impression that she was bored._

_"I'm sure Clarke informed you last night that I'll be leaving today for the mountain. But, before I do I want to talk to you about Aedan. I know you don't know me very well and your distrust is understandable. I don't trust you either. And I know you are weary of Aedan because she is one us, one of the sky kru who holds the love and respect of your largest army. A threat. But If you believe nothing else believe this, I do know her. And I know she does not take the duty of General lightly, or considers it merely her duty. Her actions two day's ago, no matter what they may have appeared as to you were done so i —"_

_"In the best interest of her friend," Lexa finishes._

_But Bellamy Blake clearly isn't done. "No, Commander. You are wrong. I don't know how or why she came to consider you worth protecting, but it clear she dose. She did what she did to help Raven sure. But, her actions were also her way of saving you from having take the life of your own man. The fifth regiment is hers now of that I have no doubt, your captain herself will tell you that they will fight for her, bleed for her, die for her and if need be defy you for her. But what you must see. You must understand, is that she is also theirs and even if it takes all her will, even if it will drain all life from her, she will honour her place as their General, every nuance of what a leader, a defender and a protecter means. She doesn't make promises lightly and just how well she tries to keep them is a testament to her integrity; it's who she is, it's why your people chose her, it's why your people follow her and it's why even your captian hid her away from you in the shadow lands. She will give you everything and more." His voice is soft, despite the impatience in it, filled with the memory of just how well Aedan Cale was loved as a ally, a friend and leader once before._

_Lexa feels suddenly cold. She remembers a similar speech many years ago from Costia, and another one only days past in the throne room by Berdine. Her new General had her people's loyalty and love indeed, if Lexa values her own life, she would have the Lion heart killed, if not for the blood debt Lexa tells herself she would, because doing so will assure her complete control over the Fifth regiment once more."I don't need to be reminded of just who it is I owe the life of my people too, Bellamy Blake. If this was your purpose behind your desire to speak to me. Then you need not have bothered, me and my people understand enormity of the blood debt owed to the General, better then your people ever could ."_

_"Once again, I apologise Commander ."He repeats through gritted teeth this time, and tilts his head down slightly and only for a second in a very minor show of respect . "I know you do not need reminding but please, as her ally you have nothing to fear but your own thoughts. Her trust is hard to gain but when you do, she is loyal and none can question her love or devotion."_

_Lexa bites back a scathing reply about just how mercurial loyalties truly are and how self-interest and clever words can be misconstrued as love. She looks for deceit in Bellamy Blake's expression and to her surprise, she finds none. The sky warrior believes everything he has said and Lexa suspects that the quiet conviction stems from experience._

_Lexa nods, a clear dismissal, and Sky warrior continues forward on his path without a backward glance. His words however, stamp an indelible mark._

888

Aedan used to crash in small spaces all the time back in her days on the Ark when Nigal was being an especially handsy-drunken-son of a bitch and needed a place to rest and hide until the danger passed. She'd forgotten how uncomfortable it could be as you get older. Not that Aedan considers herself to be old, she's twenty one so why would she? But that doesn't stop the aching crick in her neck from giving her a hard time as she stands up from corner spot next to Raven makeshift bed and small tent and set to work with getting ready for the day.

The sun, rising in the east, pours into the courtyard, bathing the ancient trees in soft, nearly golden light.

After her routine foray through the Tondc, Aedan makes here way to her own sleeping quarters next to the fifth barracks and dons the forest green and brown leathers of her regiment –the variety worn in central Trikova which is conveniently without sleeves. When ready she steps out into the courtyard and observers for a while as her warriors pair up for training, after she's watched log enough to pinpointed the weakest links among them Aedan rolls her shoulders. She grips a wooden short-sword in one hand, clenching and unclenching the other as though reining in the many beasts of the Dark forest she had once landed in and begins to rail them in.

The boy looked at the General as she walked up slowly to him. He was blushing. He prayed she wouldn't notice or something even worse the soldiers of his regiment would notice or his brother Diaval. The red head stepped back as she got closer to him. He wasn't sure what she might try to get him off guard even more then her beauty.

"You should start with unsheathing your sword first kid don't you think? " The General teased. Her long hair swayed behind her as she walked around the teen. She was appraising him. She could tell by his muscle tone he had fought a lot, but even so she thought he wouldn't be a match for her strength. Aedan knew this would be a quick battle she could win. Even though the boy had been through a lot of battles, one she herself had led him into in Trikovia she was much more experienced. Also she was specialized in more than just the sword, thus the reason she said it was an anything goes sparring match.

The recruit doesn't know what hits him. One moment, he is unsheathing his sword, the next his feet are whipped from under him and he lands on his backside, gazing wide-eyed at his opponent.

"And now you're dead," Aedan tells him sensibly."You always have to be ready for attack from your opponent!" she mocked as she held her sword at his throat "Stand up. Try again and this time, be more attentive."

Grudgingly, the boy of eighteen gets up, his face reddening as a growing number of fifth and Ton dc's warriors gather around to watch.

This time, Aedan allows him to unsheathe his weapon.

A grinning Diaval yells, "Cole, hold up your sword like you mean it little brother, you look like a ninny!"

Refusing to be teased, the kid gives a massive yell before charging, stirring dust in his wake. Aedan sidesteps and hits him with a quick and accurate thrust at a particularly sensitive trigger point Jasel had tought her. His hands fly to the sharp pain in his back and he falls to his knees.

"Don't let emotions get to you, kid."

With an agonised expression, the boy named Cole nods, squinting up at her.

Observing that he's probably learned enough this morning and that his ego can hardly stand anymore teasing from his regiment; she offers him her hand and helps him up approving smile.

She advises, "Practice two or three hours every day with the weapon's master. In a weeks time, I'll be back to see how well you've progressed."

"Yes, General." He waits for her dismissal and she gives it with a wave of her hand. He limps to the gathered crowd.

Aedan studies the row of seemingly entertained Ton dc's troops. Noticing that they regard her with increasing interest, her expression becomes decidedly feral.

"I see I've gathered an audience. Who's next?"

The hulking figure of Gustus steps in and though someone offers him a practice sword, he refuses. He unsheathes his sword in a single fluid stroke

Aedan grins widely.

Without waiting or warning, she darted straight for the large grounder the second he enters reaching destinies, the fury she had restrained so well two days ago was aflame once more inside of her. Gustus wasn't expecting her to attack yet and he stumbled backwards. 'This woman was full of surprises,' he thought as he maneuvered to regain his balance.

"Lesson number one. Never expect your opponent will wait for you. Doesn't matter even if you have the advantage." she mocked lectured with a sneer as she moved her sword away. She looked into his eyes; her eyes were cold and seemed to be much more serious than when she was instructing the teen. Her wild flame like hair hung over the right side of her face, as she watched him.

With the clink of metal the Generals blade clashed once again loudly with the crude skull-adorned hilt of Gustus own as the circled each other. Aedan narrowed her eyes as she looked past the locked weaponry towards the visor of her large opponent. The now former first warrior growled lowly under his breath, the muscles of his tattooed-skinned form tensing as he started to press his sword down upon the General's sword, trying to overpower his much smaller foe.

Aedan braced herself, a groan escaping her lips as she tried to push his weapon back against the grounder's own, though it obvious the other was of greater strength than herself. She adjusted her stance slightly, the dust-covered ground crunching beneath her leather and metal boots, before she suddenly stepped back and allowed her larger opponent to make his move.

With an ominious whistle the other warroior's weapon was brought down, but not quick enough to injure the agile red head. As Aedan jumped back, the pointy head of her opponent's blade set itself deeply into the dirt at her feet, leaving its wielder vulnerable; exactly what the General had hoped for.

Quickly she lurched to the side, her foot already brought back to her side as it was swung in a horizontal arc towards the Gustu's now unarmed flank. With the squelch of flesh and the crack of bone her foot bore itself into the Warriors still outstretched sword arm with enough force to snap it in half, and as a howl of pain echoed from the warrior's mouth Aedan knew that severe damage was done.

Gustu's sword was released from its slackened nimble grasp, imbedded deep into the soild and blooded ground but upright as its wielder fell to a knee.

Aedan did not allow the other soldier to regain his composure she swung her fist at his face. Gustus let out a loud growl of a wound bear as he was hit straight on. He fell back and griped his head with his one hand as crippling pain shoots up his head. The former first warrior stared at the General with shock in eyes as that was the last thing he was expecting her to do. His arm was in a lot of pain and bleeding. However it was nothing to the pain piecing his scull like a blade. He had been hit pretty hard from the metal that was adoring the generals hand like a glove but he was certain that if she had just put enough pressure on that hit he would be dead the material of his nose would have break off and lodged itself on his brain killing him .

Aedan stood over the fallen warrior and gloated. She bent down and grabbed the large sword that the former first warrior had dropped. She pointed it at Gustus. "My win."

After a few moment in which she waited for him to concede and in which he dose so with a slow nod; she removes the sword away from his throat and offers him her hand.

Gystus wipes away the blood on his still functional arm and he takes the hand offered to him. Once in his feet and his hand if freed by the General. He bows respectfully and walks away from the open field.

* * *

_"Does she always tempt fate like this?"Was all Lexa could breath out quietly after the fight between her former first warrior and Aedan Cale was over._

_Lexa leans against the oak railings of the terrace, watching as Gustus visor distance itself from Aedan Cale from overhead._

_"No more than she has to," Berdine replies. "Admittedly I did not foresee Gustus challenge in this. The Fifth however have have made it their mission to either kill or dismember her on the practice floor."_

_Lexa stares at her in shock and a furious opinion nearly slips from her mouth, except Berdine is smiling. Half her body leans eagerly over the balcony and Berdines weapon master Diaval captures her attraction once again as he cajoles Aedan Cale from his perch on the crumbled bricks of the courtyard wall, "You've gotten slow, Cale!"_

_Aedan waves absently at him. And before any of them could so much as blink, she dispatches the Etsijä with a few, force-filled strokes that are impressively efficient. Laughter echoes around the courtyard._

_"I spoke too soon!" The weapons master comments loudly._

_Aedan growled, "Diaval, if you'd like a beating, come and join the rest of them!"_

_Lexa sees the weapons master shake his head even as brother yells for him to enter in the revelry. "No thank you!" he shouts. "I'm happy to watch you beat the shit out of everyone but me for once."_

_Turning to Lexa one more, Berdine motions to the scene and picks up where she left of and explains, "Sparring like this is a habit of hers, from before her days as our General. It helps build morale and makes her accessible to the lower rungs of the military._

_"I wouldn't worry," she looks at Lexa knowingly even as Lexa broadcasts her denial of such emotion by gazing elsewhere. "Her skills far surpass anyone's in the ranks."_

_Indra lets a disbelieving scoff at Lexa's left for all to hear._

_As though to prove her point, Aedan Cale goes through a slew of soldiers, each one more eager than the next. As they move forward to attack, she constantly traverses different paths through their defences, evolving far too quickly for any of them to truly discern a pattern._

_With Lexa's practised eye, Lexa can see that Aedan gives little to no opportunities for anyone disarm her. It takes its toll; Aedan's arms begin to glisten with sweat, fluid yet strong as they weave around her opponents in clipped, economical arcs._

_Studying her as she takes on two soldiers at once, Lexa notices that her Geneeal's technique is completely opposite hers. Lexa embellishes with loops and ellipses as she moves from one stance to another. She uses them to confuse, intimidate and to keep a crowd from moving closer._

_Lexa can see that Aedan Cale likes to gore her opponents at close quarters, using bodies as a shield or a wall to push against as she moves from one kill to the next._

_It's irresistibly primal. Lexa bites her lower lip self disgust as she feels herself grow warm at the thought._

_In half an hour, her new General has gone through nearly ten opponents, pausing to rest only when The Blake warrior push his way through the crowed with Clarke and his sister by his side, their visor unmistakable to Lexas eyes as the sky warrior summons the still fighting General with a diacritic motions of his hands that Lexa catches but can not interpret . After dispatching her final opponent, she gives them her encouragements and sends them off, dismissing the throng of spectators as she makes her way towards them._

_"I don't see how this raises morale," Lexa comments as Clarke of the sky people leads her General and Blake's to where Lexa stands. "They all seem rather humiliated ."_

_Berdine smiles. "I've been __**informed**__ failure is but a stepping stone to eventual victory."_

_By the time Clarke, the two Blake's and Aedan have traverse the stairway leading to the perch they stand on, Lexa sees that younger Blake sibling has already been through a preview of there new plan to infiltrate the mountain if the thunderous expression in her eyes is any indication._

_Nore dose it escape her notice the flames of fury that sharpens Aedan Cale green orbs when they find Marcus of the sky in their mids._

_ Lexas mind wanders for a moment at their history._

_Glancing at them when they make it at the top of the scaffolding and tipping her head forward in acknowledgement, Lexa summons the four forward with a wave and pores herself some refreshment._

_Berdine calls to Aeaden Cale in an informal and fond tone as she approaches, "She retires when she's ahead, __**a sure sign of dare I say it **__wisdom__** at last!**__"_

_Aedan Cale smiles enigmatically ignoring Kane's presence in the room completely as she looks down at the now empty courtyard and at the wooden practice swords lying neatly on a table below._

_"I wouldn't go that far. Can I ask the purpose of this get together?" she asks." Because I have things to do in better places to be."_

_"Insolent Sky girl. Blood debt or not you will show some respect ," Indra spat at her._

_"Respect is earned ," Aedan Cale counters in blunt tone, refusing to remove her piecing gaze from Bellamy Blake unusually silent at her side or back down to the warrior growling at her." And you've done nothing of note to earn mine Indra com tre kru."_

_When Indra hand went to removed her sword from its sheath Lexa decided to intervene._

_"Indra!Enough!" Lexa commanded sharply and was obeyed instantly by the Captian._

_That done Lexa turned to Aedan Cale to explain the reason for her summons to this unofficial meeting and found the older girl leaning back against the wooden post, watching her quietly with unnerving intensity. That put a hitch in her breathing for a moment, but she met those too green to be true eyes and went on. "I have Gathered you here becouse Bellamy and Clarke of the sky kru have pointed out that while we have been enemy's for many seasons with the mountain men, we have discovered little to nothing on how we can breach their fortress in the mountain and we need someone on the inside if we are ever to figure it out."_

_"An inside man then? Someone to be your eyes and years. Who exactly do you in mind ?," Aedan's voice was harsh as she looked between Clarke and the Blake sibling._

_The older Blake took a deep breath as if to prepare himself for battle straightened his shoulders and lifted his eyes to meet his friends searching gaze._

**_"Me.I'm going."_**

888

Aedan's eyes were dark with worry. "_Why_?"

"We need to find out more. I'll be fine."

"_Why_?" Aedan asked again calmly

Clarke moved forward. " Listen Aed-"

"Shut up Griffin no one is talking to you. Bellamy answer me."

Blake sighs. "When you saved my ass the first time we meet you said that the reason you stuck with me to start with was because when you save someone's life you become responsible for it. When I first took the mantel of leadership upon landing down here, it was done in my self interest only. I had no intention of taking on that responsibility, it was just a bid for a power that secured mine and Octavia's safety. But, you were right and by the time realised it, it was already to late. You were thinking about it too, admit it. I know you and I know how think Aed! I don't belive for a second that you haven't thought about fact that these grounders have fought the people in Mt. Weather for God knows how many generations and not one of those generations managed to penetrate their defences."

They both heard the Tondc leader hiss like a viper in outrage at Bellamys insult. Both ignored it.

"I was think on me going, not you! You idiot!...beside ," she said quietly."There is one other possibility."

But Bellamy shook his head, immediately, as if the same possibility had already occurred to him.

"No," he said. " Your needed here and I don't thing we should even consider it, and there's no reason for us to resort to such measures."

"What measures?" Octavia asked, and saw the question mirrored in the other women's ' faces.

"Why not. I could sneak in, scout the situation and kill head snake before he knew I was there," Aedan said matter-of-factly. "If he wasn't there, I could plant bombs in the main barracks and key them to activate when his near them. That might take a bit longer, but he'd be just as dead. His people more than like will turn on one another without someone to lead them.."

"No," his eyes said _not yet_. " This is swan song and the tune remains the same, _Eurystheus sent Heracles_ to slay the Hydra, he cut of the beast head only to have another two grow in its place. Clarke said the leader in mount weather was an old man. They must have been grooming someone to take his place, his death might make little to no difference at all to our people. Besides they are my responsibility, every single one them not yours Aed. I can do this,- you know I can. I'll be fine.

Famous last words, Aedan thought, even as she mentally acknowledged that she had no power to stop her friend . And she knew, in her gut, that Bellamy meant what he'd said. Her friend needed to know more in order to save his friends, to protect his sister and the blonde who had come to mean so much to him that Bellamy was willing to wonder into enemy lines and give back the fight the blonde princess was losing inside of her.

So Aedan didn't try and talk her friend out of it. Instead, she did all that she could do at this point. Prepare him for what was to come.

"Do you realise what your signing yourself up for Bellamy. It's easy now to see your enemies as evil, but once you enter their world, you'll see there's good and evil on both sides of every war ever fought. And you'll know that the next enemy your taking down is someone's father, mother, brother. Someone's sister."

"I know." He said softly. "That's why I need _**you**_ to find another way. So it doesn't come to that. I need _**you**_ to do the impossible the way_**only you**_ can Aedan."

"_**Sure**_ let me just pull out a magic hat and get down to work," she says sarcastically . "Just because I pulled a sword from a stone doesn't mean I'm King Arthur Bell."

"No._** You're better**_. You'll succeed where he failed. And if you think you can't do this alone, then you just need your knights of the round table."

"Indeed. And where am I going to find those huh?" she says mock lightly.

" We'll, there's me of course."

"Of course. Your my Lancelot, without the hanky panky."

" Uua. No way! I'm not Lancelot, but you know there was this old timer by the name Jasel just in Arkadia who looked like his whole world had crashed down around him when he cornered me in a hallway with a knife to my throat and I told him you were dead. Now I reckon he's _you're Merlin_ right there."

Aedan's head snaps in Bellamy's directions so fast she almost gives herself whiplash her face visible of shock and restrained hope."Jasel's alive?"

Bellamy head Tilts slight to the side in thought as he observed the obvious happiness she is unable to hide at the news." Yes, and I'm quit interest to know how this odd little friendship actually came about. Last time I checked you didn't trust him?"

"Another story, for another time." Aedan answers omasly."Suffices to say during the brief period in which we were estranged two years ago...he had an opportunity in which I was completely defenceless, to hurt me and he didn't take it."

Belllemy squeezed his eyes closed guilt twisting his features." What happened." Bellamy asked, dreading the answer.

"I lost control of the flames."Was Aeadn only answer, knowing he would understand.

"Why..? Did Nigal -"Bellamy ventured in a carful but slightly shaky tone.

The redhead regarded him, her face drawn. Finally, she shook her head and cut him off before he could change continue with such tournamenting line of thoughts." No. I don't know how to explain it..and now is not the time to try."

"I _have_ to go Aed._I have too." _He say's seriously now.

"I know" Aedan acknowledges him sadly. Before a stern mocking expression overtakes her expression." I deserved better than this Blake, As my Lancalot you have failed me Miserably ," Aedan smirks, eyes shining girlishly for the first time in a while, and Bellamy pales as he remembered how morbid her humor could be and what came next was sure to be extremely humiliating." However, you are my Lancalot and some disturbing experiences have led me to believe that death is not the end. And I know that should you perish in this good fight my brave knight I will find it very difficult to wait until my next life to meet you -"

"For fuck sake's, that's creepy please stop ." he mutters horrified " I'm not Lancelot."

"_Fine!"_ Aedan say in exasperation." If you really want to, _you can be Guinevere_."

He raises his eyebrows and gapes at her in absolute outrage while Octavia cackles loudly, like some witch, seriously? "Your evil you know that?"

"I know ," she tells him, happily as if it was something to be proud off the little hell spawn.

" Ok then, if you'll excuse me. I have to meet Lincoln, it's about time we set off." Bellamy clasps her forearm just as she does with his –an old secret hand-shake from when they were kids –and pulls her close into a quick hug. "May we meet again. Look after them for me?"

"I will." Aedan acknowledges knowing who he meant by them without asking before letting go."May we meet again."

888

_The Blake siblings depart closely by Griffin and soon after the two Captains who linger for different reason before leaving Aedan and Lexa standing alone in the morning heat._

_"General." Lexa called out as the redhead was turning around to leave also without a word, "I would have you remain here for awhile, join me for some refreshments please."_

_That stopped her. She searched her look of barely controlled fury for a moment, then nodded slightly and followed her without another word at the table._

"What would you like to drink General?" Lexa asks as she watches her carefully.

"Water" she responds.

_Reaching for the goblet of water the commander offers, Aedan takes a quick a sip of the cool liquid, before sitting down once more to the place offered to her and swipes an apple from the fruit basket to take a bite out of it as she waits for the commander to speak._

_They drink and Lexa feels the tension rise. _Her steps are measured as they subtract the space between her and the General. She stops when she is directly across from her, the table acting as a barrier. _She sits to join Aedan Cale at the table, her fingers tightening around the goblet's neck._

_Aedan sees sliver of uncertainty bends the sides of the Commanders mouth when she opens it to speak before it disappears. "You fought well. Your skill with the sword and hand to hand combat were impressive. I've seen only a handful of warriors mange to withstand Guatus attacks let alone continue to take on other combatants after. How do you feel General, do you require a healer?"_

_"No healer required Commander," Aedan deflects with a asnwering the original question, because if she was to be honest she thinks she may have bruised more than one rib in the fight, but the flames still licked at the contained fury that had been called forth during the fight and the Phoenix like creature inside refused to volunteer any information that could be perceived as weakness. "You want something from me commander? I suggest you spit it out. There's no point beating around the bush.."_

_Lexa lifts a brow, a hand on her dagger as she leans against the other side of the table. "Indeed? I wished to inquire as to your silence concerning Gustus crime towards you and your friend. And what gifts do you expect in return for this silence ?"_

_At this, Aedan stops for a moment with the consumption of her bright red apple and counters the commanders question with one of her own . "Must I expect something in return? I'm quit sure I made myself clear two nights ago. His fate was not mine but Ravens to decide, and she decided that your warrior would live. If I wanted him dead I would have disposed of him long before the feast when I had discovered his plan and believe me I was more than tempted."_

_"What stopped you then? What stops you now? Why do you not expose his crime? Why did you come to my aid at the river? I already owe you the lives of my people Aedan Cale and I don't wish to owe you any more favours than I can afford to pay back," Lexa continues. " The sky warrior Bellamy's spoke with me just after the rise of the sun when our paths crossed, he lead me to believe that you silence is kept on my behalf and if this the case I wish to know why?" She asked, mistrust evident in her voice._"_I suspect he is wrong whatever the case, he has selected ideals about your character that has led him to become quite blindly devoted to you. However should there be any truth to his words I wish to be enlightened as to your motives?"_

_Aedan Cale flushes almost violently and quickly slaps her hands over her face to hide it, seeming thoroughly horrified about the uncontrolled response._

_Lexa is slightly uncomfortable with how amusing she finds it._

_Aedan Cale groans into her palms. "Bellamy is unreasonably over-protec—you know what? I don't feel like talking about my motives just yet," she decides, dropping her hands and looking resolute, despite the pinkness in her cheeks, which is slowly beginning to fade._

_Lexa is unwilling to accept that as justification and fights the urge to demand as she would form her subjects that Aedan Cale answer her question to full or fall to her sword. "This is unacceptable it does nothing to clarify my questions ," she replies and holds back more of what she wants to say, cuts it out of her mind and focuses on her response instead._

_"That's the point Commander —to—not. To not—you know. Clarify," Aedan Cale says, reaching up to rub the back of her neck, rotate her shoulders and finger-comb the red bangs out of her green eyes as she frowns thoughtful. For a moment, Lexa sees uncertainty in Aedan green eyes. They flicker to the opened space below, before her expression solidifies with intent. Lexa quickly ascertains that she has thrown herself into the path of an avalanche._

_Aedan rises from her side of the bench and traces the edges of the oak table, moving around it to stand next to her. She comes to Lexa, her green eyes clear and searching._

_Clearing her throat, Lexa shakes her head as though willing away the vestiges of a dream. There is something dangerous yet appealing about the way Aedan Cale pushes and prods at her control. Lexa's only consolation,the momentary uncertainty she see flash by in those to green eyes before the General anchors them both with an unexpected challenge._

_"I'll tell you what Commander" Aedan whispered with a gleam in her eyes." If you spar with me and win. I will answer any question you ask fully and honestly._

_The offer stifles Lexa's instinctual refusal in her throat "And if you win." She asks Aedan Cale wearily._

_"A kiss."_

_"Excuse me?"_

_"Scared, Commander?" Aedan whispered with a gleam in her eyes._

_"You wish." Lexa responded with defiant jut of her chin her body coiled and ready to spring._

_The redhead smiles slightly to the side "So then we have a deal?"_

_"Yes, we have a deal."_

_"Good." Aedan throws her a wooden sword. "Now, show me what you've got and I'll give you the same." Aedan whacks her wooden sword against Lexa's._

_Lexa lunges forward. Aedan parries and throws a daring counter-blow. Lexa knows it's a foil and spins out of the way, defending with two well-placed slices that afford nothing. Aedan's own sword already back to her side as it was swung in a horizontal arc towards Lexa's now unarmed flank. The edge of it flicks Lexa's wrist as she moves evade its strike._

_Lexa rubs the sore spot, looking up in surprise. "Who trained you?"_

_"Only the best, Commander." Aedan smiles while she enjoys Lexa's bewilderment._

_Lexa's pride overrides her sensibility and she cannot withhold her taunt, "Who might the best be General? How would you know them to be the best Now? It could be that You've simply been spoiled by such easy pickings."_

_Aedan raises her brow. "My mentors in life were hardly easy, not to take down at least."_

_"Really, now? Then show me how you defeted them."_

_Aedan's laugh echoes about the courtyard, showing her surprise at Lexa's boldness. She scoffs at the challenge, "You may regret that you've asked."_

_Lexa lifts her sword and tilts her head. "Never."_

_Aedan enacts a few tentative strikes, testing Lexas reactions but the Commander does not react. Instead, she acts and every blow is followed by another. The fight progresses and neither of them give the other ground. Aedan becomes increasingly wary, fatigue edging into her forearms as her muscles burn past the point of pleasantness and into agony. They have grown silent, their taunts sinking into grim concentration._

_It's a tiny stumble, indiscernible to anyone but a woman trained by more than one of the best weapons master and Lexa sees it, a slight give in Aedan's defence to compensate for her dwindling strength._

_Lexa's ensuing attack is unforgiving as she wields the wooden sword with both her hands. Aedan Cale's grunts punctuate the silence._

_The swords kissed and sprang apart and kissed again. Lexa's blood was singing. This was what she was meant for; she never felt so alive as when she was fighting, with death balanced on every stroke._

_It's too late when Aedan realises that her opponent has backed her into a corner. She feints then weaves up to strike at Lexa's neck. Not a moment too soon, Lexa has executed a similar yet quicker manoeuvre and they stand with their swords within inches of the other's face._

_Lexa's carefully neutral expression only serves to reveal that she hasn't experienced a stalemate in a long time._

_Lexa should have felt guilty for having enjoyed any of this, but she still marvels at the actual emotion. Ever since Lexa had taken the flame such emotions, thrill, passion, desire had faded day by day, her ability to feel had began to dime and fade almost completely after Costia's death. So much so that she hardly felt human at times. That is until now. She realises that her misgivings about the General steams not only from the power she holds. But from the strong emotions she provoked, anger, annoyance, desire, fear._

_Aedan lowers the wooden weapon. "A good match," she concedes._

_"Indeed," Lexa replies, before falling silent._

_Lexa remembers the events preceding this one, before discovering Aedan session in the courtyard._

_A mark that becomes even more prominent as Aedan Cale picks up on the conversation to continue were it been left off._

_"So according to the rules, a stalemate concludes that .. we both won our little duel, right? Which would mean you owe me a kiss, as my spoils. And I in turn owe you the truth. I plan to keep and collect on my end of the bargain." Aedan Cale spoke voice low and even. "What about you Cammandor? Are you welshing on our agreement?"_

_Now Lexa felt a shiver of foreboding go down her spine. Shuddering in reaction Lexa bit down on her lower lip, not sure on how to proceed . She knew that if she accept Aedan Cale challenge, if she Followed through with their agreement and allowed the Lion heart of Trikova to take her prize . That it would leave her irrevocably changed. Her need for answers it seemed overpowered even her self preservation." Of course not General, however unplesent the truth might be I wish to be aware of it if I'm to trust you as my second in the war to come."_

_Aedan Cale regards Lexa silently for a moment as if to gouge at her resolve and then snorts bitterly and hides her mouth behind her hand. She takes a forward and stares just a little longer as if searching for something._

_What she is looking for, Lexa does not know._

_General Cale's eyebrows furrow, her hands curl into fists and her mouth sags. "Ok," she mutters. "Fine." She straightens fully and looks at her directly. "You want to know why? You want some deliberate speech about it? Well fine," she says decisively, green eyes alive with stubbornness and determination. "Then listen carefully Lexa com tre Kru," Aedan Cale says, her voice low and husked with emotion."Listen. Because I want you hear me clearly, I want you to hear the truth you were willing to bleed for. My name is Aedan Cale, I'm twenty one years old, and would not think twice about throwing myself onto the edge of a sword if it meant saving a life. I threw up four times the first time I ever came close to killing someone. I'm childish and serious and a complete contradiction most times. I like being selfish and getting my way. I like sacrificing for the good of good. I am obsessed over Arthorians legends and his knights of the round table beacouse the story was the last one my father read to me before he was taken away, along with my mother and unborn baby brother. I love my friends like they are my family, beacouse to me they are. I learned early in life that no one is going to take care of me so I have to do it myself because I've been doing it myself ever since Inturned five. I love apples and for no apparent reason other than I figure I was just born loving them. I think Space sucks and I think earth sucks just as bad. _

_I hate my unc—Kane. And I've genius level IQ, but I rearlly use it but in matters of survival. Why? Because I still need time to grow and get over myself. I know I have things to improve and work on. I still have some inner demons to slay and some past ghosts to put to rest. Why would I ever want to drag anybody else into that? Why would I willingly want to include anyone—include a whole regiment of men, women and children into my fucked-up mess I call a life? The answer is that I wouldn't and I didn't want to." She stops then pauses to exhale and steps back Away from Lexa . "The point, Commander," she says, taking another measured breath. "The point is—that I never wanted to be leader of the fifth Regiment. I never wanted to be a leader period. I had intended to leave the dark forest when I heard the shot that lead me to cross paths with Berdine's children and found myself her captive of sorts. I stumbled on the trial stones by accident ," Aedan continues. "I wasn't aware off their meaning or of what I had done and when I found out I had no intention of accepting it. "_

_Lexa shakes her head. "But?"_

_"But," Aedan breathes, " Once I discovered they were in danger. It didn't matter that I had sworn no fealty to them, that I had not accepted theirs, or the mantle of leader. They were mine already. I belonged to them. When I discovered that you had rallied the regiments to war against the sky kru I had every intention of fighting you, maybe killing you too. But doing either, I knew would have destroyed the very people, the rest of everything I fought so hard to protect. I know, because what you did to the hundred was only a taste of what you are capable of doing for your people and them for you. I will disobey you, defy you, contradict you at every turn should I believe you wrong. But I promise I will never betray you. I could no more betray you then I could them. " And then, as abruptly as she started, she stops._

_Lexa says nothing, unable to find the proper words to respond with._

_Her breath rattles with the force of the General sentiments. The air in her lungs is not enough and she resists the desperate urge to clutch at her chest, to rub away the frigid rime creeping into long-empty is all very hard to believe, she thinks. But, believe her Lexa realises she dose. After a few minutes, Lexa regain her ability to speak, "You are brave, I must give you that, braver than anyone I've met, but what you proposing sound like a partnership?"_

"A partnership between two equals. Two Leaders", she nodded."Do you accept?"

_"I Accept",Lexa smiles sadly, knowing that Bellamy Blakes words have been secretly vindicated."I'm glad it's you."_

_"It's me that what?"_

_"That you're the one to complete the task Costia left for her successor."_

_Aedan quiet for a long moment before she replies, "Thank you."_

_"No, thank you. You have been more gracious than most, than what has been expected." Lexa gazes at her as if she could unravel the things that made Aedan If she just looked long enough . "Others would have wasted what the Trikova had to offer. I am grateful, for the mercy you have shown Gustus ... I understand now why you would not wish to fight or kill me, but still why came to my aid at the river? Why save me?_

_Lexa is astounded when in answer Aedan Cale reaches out to her, her hand brushes the back of her fingers against Lexa's face. The contact is surprisingly intimate and Lexa's leans into the touch._

_Aedan shifts even closer into her space and her lips almost kissing the back of Lexa's ear, her breath tickling the hair on Lexa's neck._

_"Because I dreamed of you", she said._

_Lexa hears Aedan swallow before she withdraws; their faces are inches apart. Aedan's gaze flickers down to Lexa's lips for a second before she turns around and walks away._

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A/N: It´s me, the author! I´m back! (ducking behind her computer to avoid objects thrown at her). Yes, I know, I´ve been very bad . I really felt terrible letting you wait so long.

I have no excuse other than work has me so tired I'm loosing the will get out of my comfy bed and let alone get enough of my brain working to write a single sentence. I really tried!

So don't be to mad ok and enjoy!

Oh, and please please please review!


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